This study investigated factors affecting disaster preparedness and evacuation intentions among home-care patients dependent on electrical power for life support. Health professionals interviewed 53 home-care patients using the Kanazawa and Kochi Disaster Preparedness Checklist. About half of the participants requiring continuous artificial ventilation or aspiration indicated that they would not or could not evacuate following a disastereven though their lives could be at risk. The availability of emergency medical equipment for use during a power outage was positively associated with the desire to evacuate. Our results indicate the need for improved systems to assist power-dependent home-care patients.Despite having escaped the immediate impact of the earthquake tremors and tsunami, users of artificial respirators and oxygen concentrators died owing to power outages following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake (Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare, 2011). Further, there is insufficient preparation for blackouts caused by hurricanes or earthquakes in the United States, despite the fact that blackout conditions could endanger electricity-dependent children (Sakashita, Matthews, & Yamamoto, 2013). In this way, both nationally and internationally, home-care patients and children using electricity-dependent medical equipment can suffer more damage than that caused by the disaster itself, as their conditions can be exacerbated-and life crises caused-by interruption of their use of medical equipment. Therefore, it is essential to prepare for electricity-dependent individuals to be provided with stable use of medical equipment during a blackout until they can evacuate to institutions, such as hospitals, with secure electricity supplies. However, it is unrealistic to expect patients or their families to shoulder the major burden of such preparations alone. Some individuals who did not evacuate, despite the evacuation order, were not able to evacuate for a physical reason by themselves or because they had to care for someone else (Brodie, Weltzien, Altman, Blendon, & Benson, 2011). It would be effective to prepare evacuation methods and provide for the secure evacuation of supporters in patients' living environments and health professionals who support everyday life.In the United States, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and American Red Cross have established and widely disseminated an approach to help people with disabilities and special needs to prepare for a disaster or emergency. The planning process includes identifying-in conjunction with family members, friends, and personal care attendants-the support and HEALTH NURSING 2016, VOL. 33, NO. 4, 196-208 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07370016.2016 resources that would be required (Federal Emergency Management Agency, & American Red Cross, 2004). Similarly, the Australian Red Cross (2015) and New Zealand Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management (2010) have developed approaches to establish personal support networks and prepare for emergen...

This study aimed to explore patients’ preparedness for emergency hemodialysis in the event of a natural disaster and to determine the factors affecting such preparedness.A cross-sectional study was conducted in undergoing hemodialysis at dialysis facilities in Sapporo, Hokkaido. The participants were a cohort of 256 outpatients aged 20 years or older, 186 (72.7%) were male, and the average age was 61.9 ± 10.9 years. The participants were divided into those who had prepared for emergency dialysis treatment and those who had not. Cross tabulations were performed on the 2 groups using the following participant attributes: preparedness for dialysis during a disaster, knowledge of how to protect themselves during a disaster, and intention to dialyze and evacuate during a disaster, followed by binomial logistic regression analysis.Of the 256 study patients, 184 (71.9%) were not prepared for dialysis treatment. In logistic regression models, patients who were not prepared for dialysis treatment were found to have higher odds of being employed (odds ratio (OR): 2.469; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.205-5.058), not being aware of disaster information acquisition methods in the event of a disaster (OR: 4.580, 95%; CI: 2.048-10.241), did not receive explanations on proper disaster response from dialysis facility staff (OR: 2.557, 95%; CI: 1.319-4.954), and believing that their family away from home would not be concerned about them (OR: 2.021; 95% CI: 1.062-3.847).Disaster preparedness in patients undergoing dialysis remain inadequate. Dialysis facilities need to strengthen their explanations of disaster response, particularly with regard to working, middle-aged people.