Survey about Intention to Engage in Specific Disaster Activities among Disaster Medical Assistance Team Members.

INTRODUCTION: Different disaster activities should be performed smoothly. In relation to this, human resources for disaster activities must be secured. To achieve a stable supply of human resources, it is essential to improve the intentions of individuals responding to each type of disaster. However, the current intention of Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) members has not yet been assessed. STUDY OBJECTIVE: To facilitate a smooth disaster response, this survey aimed to assess the intention to engage in each type of disaster activity among DMAT members. METHODS: An anonymous web questionnaire survey was conducted. Japanese DMAT members in the nuclear disaster-affected area (Group A; n = 79) and the non-affected area (Group N; n = 99) were included in the analysis. The outcome was the answer to the following question: "Will you actively engage in activities during natural, human-made, and chemical (C), biological (B), radiological/nuclear (R/N), and explosive (E) (CBRNE) disasters?" Then, questionnaire responses were compared according to disaster type. RESULTS: The intention to engage in C (50), B (47), R/N (58), and E (52) disasters was significantly lower than that in natural (82) and human-made (82) disasters (P <.001). The intention to engage in CBRNE disasters among younger participants (age ≤39 years) was significantly higher in Group A than in Group N. By contrast, the intention to engage in R/N disasters alone among older participants (age ≥40 years) was higher in Group A than in Group N. However, there was no difference between the two groups in terms of intention to engage in C, B, and E disasters. Moreover, the intention to engage in all disasters between younger and older participants in Group A did not differ. In Group N, older participants had a significantly higher intention to engage in B and R/N disasters. CONCLUSION: Experience with a specific type of calamity at a young age may improve intention to engage in not only disasters encountered, but also other types. In addition, the intention to engage in CBRNE disasters improved with age in the non-experienced population. To respond smoothly to specific disasters in the future, measures must be taken to improve the intention to engage in CBRNE disasters among DMAT members.

Increasing Disaster Medical Assistance Teams' Intent to Engage with Specific Hazards.

To ensure human resource availability for a smooth response during various types of disasters, there is a need to improve the intent of those involved in responding to each hazard type. However, Disaster Medical Assistance Team personnel's intent to engage with specific hazards has yet to be clarified. This study therefore aimed to clarify the factors affecting Disaster Medical Assistance Team members' (n = 178) intent to engage with each type of hazard through an anonymous web questionnaire survey containing 20 questions. Our results show that the intent to engage in disaster response activities was significantly lower for chemical (50), biological (47), radiological/nuclear (58), and explosive (52) incidents compared with natural (82) and man-made hazards (82) (p < 0.01). Multiple regression analysis showed that incentives were the most common factor affecting responders' intent to engage with all hazard types, followed by self-confidence. Thus, creating a system that provides generous incentives could effectively improve disaster responders' intent to engage with specific hazards. Another approach could be education and training to increase disaster responders' confidence. We believe that the successful implementation of these measures would improve the intent of responders to engage with hazards and promote the recruitment of sufficient human resources.

Medicine at mass gatherings: current progress of preparedness of emergency medical services and disaster medical response during 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games from the perspective of the Academic Consortium (AC2020).

Mass gatherings are events characterized by "the concentration of people at a specific location for a specific purpose over a set period of time that have the potential to strain the planning and response resources of the host country or community." Previous reports showed that, as a result of the concentration of people in the limited area, injury and illness occurred due to several factors. The response plan should aim to provide timely medical care to the patients and to reduce the burden on emergency hospitals, and to maintain a daily emergency medical services system for residents of the local area. Although a mass gathering event will place a significant burden on the local health-care system, it can provide the opportunity for long-term benefits of public health-care and improvement of daily medical service systems after the end of the event. The next Olympic and Paralympic Games will be held in Tokyo, during which mass gatherings will occur on a daily basis in the context of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic. The Academic Consortium on Emergency Medical Services and Disaster Medical Response Plan during the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020 (AC2020) was launched 2016, consisting of 28 academic societies in Japan, it has released statements based on assessments of medical risk and publishing guidelines and manuals on its website. This paper outlines the issues and countermeasures for emergency and disaster medical care related to the holding of this big event, focusing on the activities of the academic consortium.