The Effect of Risk Reduction Intervention on Earthquake Disaster Preparedness of the Elderly People

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 ۲ 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 ۵۸ items with ۴ subscales (communication, environmental, during and after earthquake period). Inferential analyses of data, including analysis of covariance was done by SPSS version ۱۶. Results: The findings showed that scores in all subscales of earthquake preparedness (communication, environment, during and after earthquake) significantly increased after educational intervention (P<۰.۰۵). 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.