Donald S. Christian1, Rujul P. Shukla2, Hardik J. Sutariya3, Yash R. Patel4
BACKGROUND
Public health emergencies including a disaster are inevitable. Moreover, the
vulnerability and health impacts are more profound in urban densely populated
dwellings. Household preparedness for public health emergencies need to be
focused to minimize the morbidity and mortality associated with such situations.
METHODS
An urban community, situated in field practice area of a tertiary care teaching
institute of Ahmedabad, Gujarat was approached for a cross-sectional study
through door to door structured interviews. A pre-designed questionnaire was
administered to assess the knowledge as well as preparedness for public health
emergencies among the respondents. The adult representative family member
from each of the selected households formed the sampling unit. Statistical tests of
association and logistic regression analysis were used to find our relationship
between household preparedness and some of the independent factors.
RESULTS
From a total of 405 households, majority of the respondents were male (65.7 %),
married (92.1 %), having secondary level education (43.7 %) and belonged to
socio-economic class IV (37.8 %). Only 44 % of the respondents had experienced
any form of public health emergency in the past and only 14.6 % had an
experience of relief work. “Flash floods following heavy rains” and “earthquake”
were the commonest disaster experienced by the respondents. None of the
surveyed households had first aid kit or a fire-extinguisher. Majority of the
respondents (N = 280, 69.1 %) were aware of emergency contact numbers in
case of public health emergencies. The overall household level preparedness was
only 12.59 %. Perceived susceptibility to public health emergencies and household
preparedness had significant statistical associations with education, occupation,
type of house and socio-economic class.
CONCLUSIONS
Education, occupation, and social class play roles in both perception as well as
household preparedness for public health emergencies. A very low level of
preparedness and their possible factors should be addressed through adequate
channels so that the damage due to such emergencies could be minimized.
