Risk Reduction Intervention Effect on Elderly People in Earthquake Disaster Preparedness Subscales Communication, During Earthquake as Well as in Post-earthquake Recovery

Injury and vulnerability happen in of all disasters. Evidence shows that in the history elderlies are one of several vulnerabe groups during disasters; therefore¡ the present study was designed and conducted with the purpose of developing interventions to increase the possibility of earthquake preparedness and its subscales with risk reduction among elderlies in Hadishahr¡ Jolfa¡ Iran.
This was a quasi-experimental study with pretest posttest design with a control group. Fifty communities dwelling elderlies were chosen through simple random sampling method from two health centers and were randomly allocated to intervention and control groups. The intervention consisted of educational sessions with slideshows¡ group discussions and sending reminder materials via mails to elderlies'' addresses one week later. The data were collected using a researcher developed preparedness questionnaire consisting of 36 items and subscales (communication¡ during and after the earthquake period). Inferential analyses of data including analysis of covariance were conducted by SPSS version 16 software.
Based on the results of demographic data¡ the elderlies were within the age range of 60-80 years old¡ whose mean age was 66.80 ± 5.66 years. About 56% of them were male; 62% had passed elementary education and the rest had a higher level of education. About 90% of the participants lived with their families¡ among which 76% hardly had any dispute with other family members. Furthermore¡ 56% of the individuals did not have any experience of offering assistance in disasters. Comparing the mean scores of experimental communication preparedness (P = 0.001)¡ preparedness during earthquake (P = 0.004)¡ and preparedness after earthquake (P = 0.017)¡ post-intervention had a significant increase¡ which indicates the effectiveness of the educational intervention program.
The results of our study showed that implementation of risk reduction program improved earthquake preparedness subscales in the communities dwelling elderlies. Thus¡ it can be concluded that such compound educational interventions are able to enhance disaster preparedness of these vulnerable groups in the society.