An Intervention To Increase Earthquake And Fire Preparedness

Levels of natural hazard preparedness continue to be low across cultures. Studies on natural hazard preparedness have consistently found that simply providing people with information about risk is not sufficient to change preparedness behaviours. Research in the field of social representations and emergency preparedness indicate that it is a combination of cognitive, emotional, and cultural factors that affect preparedness behaviours. Therefore, understanding how personal, social, and cultural dynamics influence people’s interpretations of risk is essential if one is to intervene effectively in hazard preparedness. The existing natural hazard preparedness literature contains two major shortcomings. Firstly, studies of community emergency preparedness interventions are scarce. Secondly, the majority of these studies are imprecisely described; many lack detailed information regarding the study’s procedures and the content of the interventions. Such work hinders development of the field of natural hazard preparedness: replication of interventions is difficult and publics are subjected to interventions with little empirical support. In order to develop the field of hazard preparedness, a multidisciplinary team of researchers aims to design, conduct and evaluate a rigorous cross-cultural intervention for fire and earthquake preparedness. The present study will explore the different cognitive, emotional, and cultural factors that play a role in emergency preparedness with the goal of improving earthquake and fire emergency preparedness behaviours among lay people.

[1]  Michael K. Lindell,et al.  Facing the Unexpected: Disaster Preparedness and Response in the United States , 2013 .

[2]  Andrea Carlson Gielen,et al.  EVALUATED COMMUNITY FIRE SAFETY INTERVENTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES: A REVIEW OF CURRENT LITERATURE , 2006, Journal of community health.

[3]  Qiong Zhou,et al.  Improving Latino disaster preparedness using social networks. , 2009, American journal of preventive medicine.

[4]  John McClure,et al.  When Earthquake Damage is Seen as Preventable: Attributions, Locus of Control and Attitudes to Risk , 1999 .

[5]  T. Drabek,et al.  Human systems in extreme environments : a sociological perspective , 1977 .

[6]  P M Sandman,et al.  A model of the precaution adoption process: evidence from home radon testing. , 1992, Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association.

[7]  M. Kresnow,et al.  Prevalence of Residential Smoke Alarms and Fire Escape Plans in the U.S.: Results from the Second Injury Control and Risk Survey (ICARIS-2) , 2007, Public health reports.

[8]  E Rincon,et al.  Effect of previous experience of a hurricane on preparedness for future hurricanes. , 2001, The American journal of emergency medicine.

[9]  Shirley A. Morrissey,et al.  Evaluating the Effectiveness of Psychological Preparedness Advice in Community Cyclone Preparedness Materials , 2003 .

[10]  T. Plapp U. Werner,et al.  Understanding risk perception from natural hazards: Examples from Germany , 2006 .

[11]  Douglas Paton,et al.  Volcanic hazard perceptions: comparative shifts in knowledge and risk , 1999 .

[12]  S. Folkman,et al.  Stress, appraisal, and coping , 1974 .

[13]  Martin W. Bauer,et al.  EUROPEAN PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS OF SCIENCE , 1994 .

[14]  M R Douglas,et al.  Comparison of community based smoke detector distribution methods in an urban community , 1998, Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention.

[15]  M K Lindell,et al.  Correlates of Household Seismic Hazard Adjustment Adoption , 2000, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[16]  Joanne M. Nigg,et al.  Waiting for Disaster: Earthquake Watch in California , 1986 .

[17]  D. Johnston,et al.  Community Understanding of, and Preparedness for, Earthquake and Tsunami Risk in Wellington, New Zealand , 2013 .

[18]  David Johnston,et al.  The Christchurch earthquake: Integrating perspectives from diverse disciplines , 2015 .

[19]  Finger Wr,et al.  Closer review of condom breakage leading to more reliable product. , 1991 .

[20]  Hope A. Seligson,et al.  HAZUS-MH Flood Loss Estimation Methodology. I: Overview and Flood Hazard Characterization , 2006 .

[21]  C. Abraham,et al.  From health beliefs to self-regulation: Theoretical advances in the psychology of action control , 1998 .

[22]  John-Paul Mulilis,et al.  A Person‐Relative‐to‐Event (PrE) Approach to Negative Threat Appeals and Earthquake Preparedness: A Field Study1 , 1999 .

[23]  A. Karanci,et al.  IMPACT OF A COMMUNITY DISASTER AWARENESS TRAINING PROGRAM IN TURKEY: DOES IT INFLUENCE HAZARD-RELATED COGNITIONS AND PREPAREDNESS BEHAVIORS , 2005 .

[24]  Tony Waters,et al.  Environmental hazards: Assessing risk and reducing disaster , 1997 .

[25]  Jean-Christophe Audru,et al.  Preparedness actions towards seismic risk mitigation for the general public in Martinique, French Lesser Antilles: a mid-term appraisal , 2013 .

[26]  Michael K. Lindell,et al.  Household Adoption of Seismic Hazard Adjustments: A Comparison of Residents in Two States , 2000, International Journal of Mass Emergencies & Disasters.

[27]  Phil Edwards,et al.  Incidence of fires and related injuries after giving out free smoke alarms: cluster randomised controlled trial , 2002, BMJ : British Medical Journal.

[28]  John-Paul Mulilis,et al.  Negative Threat Appeals and Earthquake Preparedness: A Person-Relative-to-Event (PrE) Model of Coping With Threat , 1995 .

[29]  M. Lindell,et al.  Preparedness for emergency response: guidelines for the emergency planning process. , 2003, Disasters.

[30]  A. Rüstemli,et al.  Correlates of Earthquake Cognitions and Preparedness Behavior in a Victimized Population , 1999 .

[31]  Douglas Paton,et al.  When good intentions turn bad: Promoting natural hazard preparedness , 2005 .

[32]  Leigh M. Smith,et al.  Volcanic Hazards: Risk Perception and Preparedness , 2000 .

[33]  Simon Murphy,et al.  Psychology and Health Promotion , 1997 .

[34]  Tiziana Rossetto,et al.  Social Representations of Earthquakes: A Study of People Living in Three Highly Seismic Areas , 2013 .

[35]  Liang-Chun Chen,et al.  Integrated Community-Based Disaster Management Program in Taiwan: A Case Study of Shang-An Village , 2006 .

[36]  Kevin R Ronan,et al.  Hazards Education for Youth: A Quasi‐Experimental Investigation , 2003, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[37]  G. Istre,et al.  Surveillance and prevention of residential-fire injuries. , 1996, The New England journal of medicine.

[38]  Tiziana Rossetto,et al.  The social psychology of seismic hazard adjustment: re-evaluating the international literature , 2010 .

[39]  T. Miller,et al.  Increasing smoke alarm operability through theory-based health education: a randomised trial , 2014, Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

[40]  Ce Faupel,et al.  The Impact of Disaster Education on Household Preparedness for Hurricane Hugo , 1992, International Journal of Mass Emergencies & Disasters.

[41]  Corleen J. Thompson,et al.  Do Smoke Alarms Still Function a Year After Installation? A Follow-Up of the Get-Alarmed Campaign , 2004, Journal of Community Health.

[42]  T. McGee,et al.  “It's just a natural way of life…” an investigation of wildfire preparedness in rural Australia , 2003 .

[43]  Norio Okada,et al.  Predicting community earthquake preparedness: a cross-cultural comparison of Japan and New Zealand , 2010 .

[44]  David Dooley,et al.  Earthquake Preparedness: Predictors in a Community Survey1 , 1992 .

[45]  S. Asch,et al.  Using the Precaution Adoption Process model to describe a disaster preparedness intervention among low-income Latinos. , 2014, Health education research.

[46]  A. Lambert,et al.  Perceptions of Risk and the Buffering Hypothesis: The Role of Just World Beliefs and Right-Wing Authoritarianism , 1999 .

[47]  J. Durant,et al.  The relationship between knowledge and attitudes in the public understanding of science in Britain , 1995 .

[48]  Douglas Paton,et al.  Risk communication and natural hazard mitigation: how trust influences its effectiveness , 2008 .

[49]  Douglas Paton,et al.  Emergency planning: Integrating community development, community resilience and hazard mitigation , 2000 .

[50]  S. Eden.  Public participation in environmental policy: considering scientific, counter-scientific and non-scientific contributions , 1996 .

[51]  M. Johnston,et al.  From Theory to Intervention: Mapping Theoretically Derived Behavioural Determinants to Behaviour Change Techniques , 2008 .

[52]  N. Allum,et al.  Gender differences in scientific knowledge and attitudes toward science: Reply to Hayes and Tariq , 2001 .

[53]  David J Ball,et al.  The Feeling of Risk: New Perspectives on Risk Perception , 2010 .

[54]  Risa Palm.  Urban earthquake hazards , 1998 .

[55]  Paul W. O’Brien,et al.  Warnings during disaster: normalizing communicated risk , 1992 .

[56]  Na Karanci,et al.  Building Disaster-Resistant Communities: Lessons Learned from past Earthquakes in Turkey and Suggestions for the Future , 2000, International Journal of Mass Emergencies & Disasters.

[57]  Gregory R Istre,et al.  Preventing deaths and injuries from house fires: an outcome evaluation of a community-based smoke alarm installation programme , 2013, Injury Prevention.