The Relationship Between Perceptions of Emergency Preparedness, Disaster Experience, Health-Care Provider Education, and Emergency Preparedness Levels

Abstract

Objective The purpose of this study was to assess the self-reported level of individual emergency preparedness, the dependent variable, of people who attended a community health-related fair. The study's independent variables included demographic characteristics, perceptions of preparedness, previous disaster experience, and the presence of a medical condition and were used to examine the variability in self-reported emergency preparedness levels. Methods Data came from attendees at two community health-related fairs. Multivariate analysis on 188 participants was performed. A model predicting preparedness levels with demographic variables was constructed; successive models were built adding perceptions of preparedness, personal experiences with disasters, and presence of a medical condition. Results Preparedness levels varied little across sociodemographic dimensions explaining virtually no variance in overall preparedness. Subsequent models adding perceptions of preparedness and personal experiences significantly increased the explained variance to 40%. Of participants who reported a medical condition, the model including discussions about emergency preparedness with health-care providers explained 67% of the variance in overall preparedness levels. Conclusion The strong, positive relationship between the health-care provider and preparedness levels indicates a pathway for effecting change in preparedness levels and ultimately community health after an emergency. The inclusion of such education at community events should be considered. Research agendas should include providing evidence for the contents of disaster supply kits.

Study on the Formation Mechanism of Medical and Health Organization Staff’s Emergency Preparedness Behavioral Intention: From the Perspective of Psychological Capital

“…The measurement items of each variable are shown in Table 1. In addition, it was considered that the factors that affect individual emergency preparedness behavior were complex and multifaceted, including demographic characteristics, previous disaster experience, etc., [54][55][56]. Therefore, gender, age, education, occupation, department and experience were selected as control variables in this study.…”

Fostering disaster mitigation through community participation- case of Kochi residents following the Kerala floods of 2018 and 2019

“…Next, the factor ‘Disaster event planning’ was asked as ‘Had you prepared Emergency kits or had an emergency evacuation plan?’. Such measures are a critical disaster mitigation factor for any disaster (Bell et al 2020 ; Lam et al 2017 ; McNeill et al 2018 ; Pickering et al 2018 ; Wilkinson et al 2018 ). The next question enquired about the knowledge gained from a similar experience if applicable.…”

Fostering Disaster Mitigation Through Community Participation- Case of Kochi Residents Following The Kerala Floods of 2018 And 2019

“…Next, the factor "Disaster event planning' was asked as 'Had you prepared Emergency kits or had an emergency evacuation plan?'. Such measures are a critical disaster mitigation factor for any disaster (Bell et al, 2020;Lam et al, 2017;McNeill et al, 2018;Pickering et al, 2018;Wilkinson et al, 2018). The next question enquired about the knowledge gained from a similar experience if applicable.…”