Disaster response knowledge and its social determinants: A cross-sectional study in Beijing, China

Exploring the knowledge, attitude and practice towards disaster medicine preparedness and readiness: A prescriptive insight by the community pharmacists in the United Arab Emirates

BACKGROUND

Proper disaster preparedness by community pharmacists has the potential to counter many of the factors that cause threats and high-risk outcomes. Their preparedness and awareness may also help health practitioners and governments to improve disaster response planning.

OBJECTIVES

This aims to explore the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) towards disaster medicine preparedness and readiness among community pharmacists in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

METHOD

A cross-sectional study was conducted over the ten months among licensed community pharmacists who had three months' professional experience or more. Face-to-face interviews were carried out and a structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Logistic regression models were used to determine the factors influencing aboucine preparedness and readiness. SPSS Version 24 was used to analyze the data collected.

RESULTS

A total of 500 community pharmacists participated in the study. The average knowledge score was 25.6% with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of [21.7%, 29.4%]. Better knowledge scores were observed in the male gender (OR 2.43; 95% CI 1.05-3.72), participants aged ≥ 31 years old (OR 2.97; 95% CI 1.16-7.6), postgraduates (OR 4.36; 95% CI 2.6-7.3), participants from independent Pharmacies (OR 6.5; 95% CI 4.04-10.4 3), chief pharmacists (OR 3.1; 95% CI 1.86-5.07), participants with 16 years and more experience years (OR 2.42; 95% CI 1.063-5.522) and participants who graduated from regional/international universities (OR 5.92; 95% CI 2.65-13.2). Better attitude and practice about disaster medicine preparedness were observed in postgraduates (OR 2.54; 95% CI 1.26-pharmacists from independent pharmacies (OR 1.35; 95% CI 2.43-2,.66), and chief pharmacists (OR 1.26; 95% CI 1.17-1.35).

CONCLUSIONS

It's essential to provide a continuing education program using different educational strategies urgently needed to improve community pharmacy competencies (e.g. knowledge attitudes, and perceptions) to improve the skills and practices regarding disaster medicine preparedness and readiness.

Developing Reusable COVID-19 Disaster Management Plans Using Agent-Based Analysis

Since late 2019, the COVID-19 biological disaster has informed us once again that, essentially, learning from best practices from past experiences is envisaged as the top strategy to develop disaster management (DM) resilience. Particularly in Indonesia, however, DM activities are challenging, since we have not experienced such a disaster, implying that the related knowledge is not available. The existing DM knowledge written down during activities is generally structured as in a typical government document, which is not easy to comprehend by stakeholders. This paper therefore sets out to develop an Indonesia COVID-19 Disaster Management Plan (DISPLAN) template, employing an Agent-Based Knowledge Analysis Framework. The framework allows the complexities to be parsed before depositing them into a unified repository, facilitating sharing, reusing, and a better decision-making system. It also can instantiate any DISPLAN for lower administration levels, provincial and regency, to harmonise holistic DM activities. With Design Science Research (DSR) guiding these processes, once the plan is developed, we successfully evaluate it with a real case study of the Manokwari Regency. To ensure its effectivity and usability, we also conduct a post-evaluation with two authorities who are highly involved in the Indonesia task force at the regency level. The results from this post-evaluation are highly promising.

Disaster Preparedness Among Populations in Shenzhen, China, With and Without Chronic Disease

OBJECTIVE

This survey examined and compared the disaster perception and preparedness of 2421 residents with and without chronic disease in Shenzhen, China.

METHODS

The participants were recruited and were asked to complete a survey in 2018.

RESULTS

Three types of disasters considered most likely to happen in Shenzhen were: typhoons (73.5% vs 74.9%), major transport accidents (61.5% vs 64.7%), and major fires (60.8% vs 63.0%). Only 5.9% and 5% of them, respectively, considered infectious diseases pandemics to be likely. There were significant differences between those with and without chronic disease in disaster preparedness, only a small percentage could be considered to have prepared for disaster (20.7% vs 14.5%). Logistic regression analyses showed that those aged 65 or older (odds ratio [OR] = 2.76), who had attained a Master's degree or higher (OR = 2.0), and with chronic disease (OR = 1.38) were more prepared for disasters.

CONCLUSIONS

Although participants with chronic disease were better prepared than those without, overall, Shenzhen residents were inadequately prepared for disasters and in need of public education.

Should We Focus More on Teaching and Training Disaster Management in Health-care Colleges? An Insight into the Students' Knowledge, Attitude, and Readiness to Practice

Background

The critical aspects of risk management for students are providing knowledge, building positive attitudes, and readiness to practice. Our study aimed to assess Chinese health-care university students' knowledge (K), attitude (A), and readiness to practice (rP) regarding disaster medicine and preparedness.

Materials and Methods

A survey was carried out using a self-administered disaster medicine and preparedness questionnaire. Three main outcome measures were K (22 items), A (16 items), and rP (11 items). Responses were scored and classified as high, moderate, and low. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed for data analysis.

Results

A total of 769 valid questionnaires were collected. The associations between K, A, and rP scores was significant, i.e., K-A scores (r = 0.449, P = 0.000), K-rP scores (r = 0.312, P = 0.000), and A-rP scores (r = 0.656, P = 0.000). Multiple linear regression analysis indicated direct low-to-moderate effects of gender, age, attitude, and knowledge on readiness to practice (R ² = 0.198; P < 0.001).

Conclusions

The study discovered that most of the students had a moderate level of knowledge, moderate level of attitude, high level of readiness to practice, and a moderate level of total KArP. K, A, and rP were significantly correlated, and K and A were predictors for rP among the health-care students. The findings indicate the importance of health-care colleges for building students' knowledge, attitudes, and readiness to practice disaster medicine and preparedness before joining the profession.

From federal transfers and local investments to a potential convergence of COVID-19 and climate change: The case study of São Paulo city

This paper is divided into two parts to explore some aspects of municipal development related to national and subnational investments in disaster risk reduction and urban sustainability related to Covid-19 and climate change response. In Part I, a survey on disasters and national transfers to 45 Brazilian municipalities is presented. In Part II, the local-scale approach enabled to compare the areas most affected by COVID-19 with those impacted by climate change. There are large uncertainties around financial support from the federal government and their impact at local scale. São Paulo city was chosen because it reveals some important aspects of spatial structure carried out through local investments. In this sense, updated information on floods and warmer surfaces were updated to provoke a discussion about a potential confluence with the effects of pandemic. The results highlighted the effects of scarce federal transfers and the maps help us to identify the spatial distribution of people at risk, which can be beneficial for municipal decisions as they highlight a significative relationship between pandemic effects and an uneven social structure. In conclusion, the trade-off between this unequal structure and a necessary and effectively sustainable change leads us to reflect on local investment trends.

Differences in Disaster Preparedness Among Dog and Other Pet Owners in Oporto, Portugal

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge and practices related to disaster preparedness among pet owners in North Portugal. The present research provides an evaluation of differences among pet owners regarding preparedness in the event of disasters.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted among a convenience sample of 155 pet owners between September and November 2018. Subjects were interviewed using a structured questionnaire with items addressing sociodemographic characteristics and questions related to owners' emergency preparedness and practices.

RESULTS

In this study, 53.5% of the respondents thought about the possibility of a disaster. Only 21.3% of respondents reported having knowledge on the existence of a disaster kit for pets in case of an emergency. The majority (94.8%) of respondents said they were not aware of the preparedness county-level organization plans. Knowledge and preparedness were found to be significantly higher among dog owners compared with owners of other pet species.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest that Portuguese pet owners have inadequate knowledge on how to prepare for inclusion of their pets in a disaster.

Developing a new individual earthquake resilience questionnaire: A reliability and validity test

Earthquakes pose serious threats to the world. Good individual resilience can cope with disaster well, but there were few appropriate assessment tools. The purpose of this study was to develop a new individual earthquake resilience questionnaire and test its reliability and validity. First, we built the framework of the individual earthquake resilience questionnaire based on expert interviews. Then, we established the initial version of questionnaire and used the Delphi method and item selection to modify it by qualitative and quantitative methods. Finally, we built the final version of questionnaire (contained 4 dimensions and 17 items) and tested the reliability and validity. The Cronbach's α values of the four dimensions were between 0.79 and 0.91, the split-half reliabilities were between 0.85 and 0.93, and the test-retest reliabilities were between 0.72 and 0.80. The item content validity indexes were between 0.87-1, and the average questionnaire content validity index was 0.94. The correlation coefficients between each item and dimension with the total questionnaire ranged from 0.79-0.90 and 0.66-0.79, respectively. We used exploratory factor analysis to identify four common factors with a cumulative variance contribution rate of 74.97%. The questionnaire is a valid and reliable tool to measure individual resilience in the context of earthquake disasters.

Evaluation of Disaster Medicine Preparedness among Healthcare Profession Students: A Cross-Sectional Study in Pakistan

Background: Disasters are devastating incidents, especially when occurring suddenly and causing damage, great loss of life, or suffering. Disasters can affect health and the social and economic development of a nation. The article analyzes the knowledge (K), attitude (A), and readiness to practice (rP) of healthcare professional students in universities in Pakistan. Methods: We carried out a cross-sectional study using a pretested and validated self-administered disaster medicine and preparedness questionnaire. The study recruited 310 students. Responses were scored and categorized as high (75th quartile), moderate (75-25th quartiles), and low (25th quartile). Independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and regression analyses were performed at an alpha level of 0.05. Results: The study found that most of the students had moderate knowledge, attitude, readiness to practice, and total KArP scores. All K, A, and rP scores were significantly correlated with overall KArP scores. Knowledge and attitude factors were significant predictors of readiness to practice. Conclusions: We strongly believe that educators and health policymakers should build a strong curriculum in disaster medicine management and preparedness to prepare competent future healthcare professionals for the nation.