ABSTRACT
Background: Because of vulnerability of the elders in disasters, preparedness of this group is very important in reducing the damages caused by the earthquake. Therefore, the present study designed and conducted with the purpose of developing interventions to increase earthquake preparedness and risk reduction in the elderly people living in Hadishahr Jolfa City, Iran
Materials and Methods: This study was a quasi-experimental study with pretest, posttest design and a control group. Fifty community dwelling elderly people were selected through simple random sampling method from 2 health centers and randomly allocated to intervention and control groups. Intervention program consisted of educational sessions with slideshows, group discussions, and sending reminder materials to their addresses a week later. The data were collected using the researcher developed preparedness questionnaire consisting of 58 items with 4 subscales [communication, environmental, during and after earthquake period]. Inferential analyses of data, including analysis of covariance was done by SPSS version 16
Results: The findings showed that scores in all subscales of earthquake preparedness [communication, environment, during and after earthquake] significantly increased after educational intervention [P<0.05]
Conclusion: Preparedness programs for disaster risk reduction has a positive effect on the elders' preparedness. Thus, similar multimodal preparedness programs should be used more frequently for this vulnerable community citizens
ABSTRACT
Cerebral palsy is the most common type of permanent movement and posture disorder in children leading to activity limitations. Children's participation is influenced by their functional ability, skills, interests, and environmental factors. The objective of the study was to describe parent perception of environmental barriers to participation of children with cerebral palsy. Secondary data analysis of the study of psychometric properties of the Persian version of the Craig Hospital Inventory of Environmental Factors for use with children with cerebral palsy. The questionnaire was administered to a sample of convenience of 75 parents of children with cerebral palsy aged between 5 and 12 years. Barriers to participation most commonly reported by parents were in the services and assistance subscale and the policies subscale of the measure. Also, parents reported the greatest barriers encountered by their children were availability of transportation and availability of education and training. Findings from this study indicate the presence of multiple environmental barriers to participation of children with cerebral palsy. Enhancing participation of children with cerebral palsy by altering barriers and increasing facilitators requires further research concerning these factors. This study suggested that people with lower function in gross motor, manual ability, as well as cognition require further support to participate in social activities