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
Background: Disasters have adverse impacts on different aspects of human life. Psychosocial Rehabilitation is one of the fields which is usually overshadowed and ignored by physical rehabilitation or its importance does not receive proper attention. This research attempts to study some lessons learned from Psychosocial Rehabilitation based on disaster experiences in Iran
Materials and Methods: This study has a conventional qualitative content analysis design. The participants of study were 15 people with direct experience of earthquake and 12 experts in this field. The study sample was selected by purposeful sampling method and the data were collected by semi-structured interviews
Results: Lack of a suitable system to deliver Psychosocial Rehabilitation, challenge in establishing balance between short-term and long-term social and mental needs, lack of mental and social experts, inefficiency in using social capital and capacities are the most important lessons learned in this field
Conclusion: Lack of awareness of mental and social problems of affected people after disaster is one of the most important barriers in successful and stable rehabilitation. Psychosocial Rehabilitation requires a suitable structure and planning for all stages of disaster management
ABSTRACT
Iran is one of the countries with considerable road traffic injuries. Pre-hospital interventions have an important role in preventing mortalities and disabilities caused by traffic accidents. The present study aimed to explore the barriers of pre-hospital care in traffic injuries in Tehran, Iran. A qualitative content analysis approach was conducted based on 21 semi-structured interviews with 18 participants. A purposeful sampling method was applied until reaching data saturation. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, and then data condensing, labeling, coding and defining categories were performed by qualitative content analysis. Four main barriers including 4 main categories and 13 subcategories emerged; they included Barriers related to people, Barriers related to metropolitan infrastructure, Barriers related to the profession and Barriers related to managerial issues. Based on the findings of this study, pre-hospital service barriers in traffic accidents have many dimensions including cultural, structural and managerial domains. Policy makers in health system can use these findings to promote the quality of pre-hospital services, especially in the field of traffic injuries
Subject(s)
Humans , Emergency Medical Services , Health PersonnelABSTRACT
Vulnerable events could damage structural, non structural and functional components of hospitals that might lead to community crisis, accordingly. Risk assessment is the first step to develop of a hospital disaster plan. In this study, a primary phase of developing a local tool for Iran's hospital disaster risk assessment entitled [Hospital Safety Index [HIS]] was conducted by World Health Organization originally. First, the original index was translated into Farsi in five forms and 145 items. Then a group of four experts from the fields of medicine and engineering assessed the items one-by-one for their relevance and applicability. Revised edition tested three times at Shariati hospital in Tehran. An expert panel also evaluated the feature and content validity of the index. They also weighted the items as well. Test-retest of the index by two independent research groups found 93% of agreement. Furthermore, 244 points were revised or added to the original edition. The most important changes included: Combining instruction parts with related items for increasing educational properties, completing the list of hazards, developing a plan to analysis, and to present a quantitative and graphic of the model and finally to prepare an educational package as well. Persian version of HSI, in response to needs of Iranian's health system, represents a rapid no-expensive tool for screening disaster risks at hospitals; based on an international template that was tested in several countries. Based on this study, the Farsi index would be evaluated in more hospitals around the country. The assessment results will provide Iranian's health system with evidence-based information for more effective allocated resources and interventions evaluating