Abstract:
The purpose of this cross-sectional descriptive study was to examine the opinion of caregivers of psychiatric inpatients towards the Universal Coverage Project and related factors. Subjects were 410 caregivers of the patients admitted to Somdet Chaopraya Hospital.The instruments were questionnaires on epidemiological data, knowledge and opinion towards the project. Data were analyzed by SPSS for percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test and one-way ANOVA. The study found that most caregivers (70.98 %) agreed with the project. The level of agreement was high (98.63%) .The percentage of the opinions were as follows the project was beneficial to the poor and underprivileged 61.7 % there should be more information regarding the rights of the patients 56.1% and the project reduced anxiety regarding the cost of health care 52.2 %. The analysis of factors related to the agreement level found that those with lower educational level, blue-collar workers, lower income, those who used Universal Coverage card, those with previous experiences of using card, knowledge of the project by radio broadcasting, the first-time card users and who used the card service in psychiatric hospital have higher mean of opinions. Those with higher educational level, white-collar workers, higher income, those who used other health care privileges, those without experiences of using card, knowledge of the project by other medias, those who use the card more than once and those service in other hospitals had lower mean of opinions. The difference was statistically significant. (p<0.01 and p<0.05).