This study examined the association between self-reported levels of household disaster preparedness and a range of physical and mental health quality of life outcomes.

Data collected from 14 states participating in a large state-based telephone survey were analyzed (n = 104 654). Household disaster-preparedness items included having a 3-day supply of food, water, and prescription medications; a working battery-powered radio and flashlight; an evacuation plan; and a willingness to evacuate when instructed to do so. Quality-of-life items were categorized into 2 domains: physical health (general health, unhealthy physical days, and activity-limited days) and mental health (unhealthy mental days, social and emotional support, and life satisfaction).

Persons with self-reported impaired mental health were generally less likely to report being prepared for a disaster than those who did not report impairment in each domain. Persons with low life satisfaction were among the least likely to be prepared, followed by those with inadequate social and emotional support, and then by those with frequent mental distress. Persons reporting physical impairments also reported deficits in many of the preparedness items. However, after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, some of the associations were attenuated and no longer significant.

Persons reporting impaired quality of life are vulnerable to increased mental and physical distress during a disaster, and their vulnerability is compounded if they are ill-prepared. Therefore, persons reporting impaired quality of life should be included in the list of vulnerable populations that need disaster preparedness and response outreach.

Planning for a response to threats like pandemics or mass casualty events is a national priority. The US blood supply system can be particularly vulnerable to such events. It is important to understand the impacts of emergency situations on blood availability and the resiliency of the US blood supply system.

On the basis of the Stock-and-Flow simulation model of the US blood supply system, we developed an inter-regional blood transfer system representing the action of multiple blood collectors and distributors to enable effective planning of strategies to minimize collection and donation disruptions to the blood supply system in the event of a national emergency.

We simulated a pandemic or mass casualty event on both a national and an inter-regional blood supply system. Differences in the estimated impacts demonstrated the importance of incorporating spatial and temporal variations of blood collection and utilization across US regions. The absence of blood shortage in both emergency scenarios highlighted the resilience of the inter-regional system to meet the potential associated blood demand.

Our inter-regional model considered complex factors and can be a valuable tool to assist regulatory decision-making and strategic planning for emergency preparedness to avoid and mitigate associated adverse health consequences. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;12:201–210)

This study examines the factors associated with the willingness to get the coronavirus vaccine among individuals aged 18 and above.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in Turkey. The participants aged 18 and older were recruited between December, 2020 and January, 2021 through conventional social media sites. Snowball sampling was used. An anonymous questionnaire consisted of demographics, vaccination experiences, and perceived risk of coronavirus disease.

1202 women and 651 men were included in the data analysis. Findings showed that demographics, vaccination experience, and perceived risk of getting COVID-19 were explained. 37% of the variance in people’s willingness to get the COVID-19 vaccination was according to hierarchical logistic regression. Furthermore, increasing age, being male, acquiring positive information about COVID-19 vaccines, having a lower level of vaccine hesitancy, the high level of worry about COVID-19, and low level of perceptions of the possibility of becoming infected by the COVID-19 were the main predictors of COVID-19 vaccine willingness.

Factors affecting adults’ willingness to be inoculated with COVID-19 vaccines were related to demographics, vaccination experiences, and perceived risk of getting COVID-19. We recommend that public health authorities and practitioners should consider these multiple factors regarding vaccine confidence to achieve herd immunity.

Hospitals are expected to function as a safe environment during disasters, but many become unusable because of nonstructural damage. This study compares the nonstructural safety of hospitals to disasters in Tehran and Stockholm.

Hospital safety in Tehran and Stockholm was assessed between September 24, 2012, and April 5, 2013, with use of the nonstructural module of the hospital safety index from the World Health Organization. Hospital safety was categorized as safe, at risk, or inadequate.

All 4 hospitals in Stockholm were classified as safe, while 2 hospitals in Tehran were at risk and 3 were safe. The mean nonstructural safety index was 90% ± 2.4 SD for the hospitals in Stockholm and 64% ± 17.4 SD for those in Tehran (P = .014).

The level of hospital safety, with respect to disasters, was not related to local vulnerability. Future studies on hospital safety should assess other factors such as legal and financial issues. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2014;0:1-6)

The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a global pandemic with no therapy, and pharmacists being a part of the health care system have a vital role in the management of COVID-19. The purpose of this study is to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices of community pharmacists (CPs) regarding COVID-19.

An online survey was conducted among 393 CPs in 2 provinces of Pakistan during the lockdown period. A validated questionnaire (Cronbach’s alpha, 0.745) was used for data collection. All statistical analyses were analyzed by using SPSS, version 21 (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY).

Among 393 participants, 71.5% (n = 281) had good knowledge, 44% (n = 175) had a positive attitude, and 57.3% (n = 225) had good practices regarding COVID-19. Social media (45.29%, n = 178) were reported as the main source to seek information of COVID-19. Good knowledge, age ≥ 26 years, and a PhD degree level were the substantial determinants (P = < 0.05) of a good attitude. Similarly, a CP with experience of > 5 years, a PhD degree, good knowledge, and a good attitude has higher odds of having good practices as compared with reference categories (P = < 0.05).

In short, a majority of the CPs had good knowledge but had a poor attitude and practice toward the management of COVID-19. Standard-structured educational and counseling programs for CPs regarding COVID-19 are needed for effective management.

Social media data are a highly contextual health information source. The objective of this study was to identify Korean keywords for detecting influenza epidemics from social media data.

We included data from Twitter and online blog posts to obtain a sufficient number of candidate indicators and to represent a larger proportion of the Korean population. We performed the following steps: initial keyword selection; generation of a keyword time series using a preprocessing approach; optimal feature selection; model building and validation using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator, support vector machine (SVM), and random forest regression (RFR).

A total of 15 keywords optimally detected the influenza epidemic, evenly distributed across Twitter and blog data sources. Model estimates generated using our SVM model were highly correlated with recent influenza incidence data.

The basic principles underpinning our approach could be applied to other countries, languages, infectious diseases, and social media sources. Social media monitoring using our approach may support and extend the capacity of traditional surveillance systems for detecting emerging influenza. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018; 12: 352–359)

The needs of people with disabilities are not taken into account during disasters, and there is no or little preparation for them. Hence, such people are very anxious about their personal safety during disasters. The aim of this study was to explain the safety needs of people with disabilities during earthquakes.

This qualitative study was conducted with purposive sampling. A total of 12 people with movement disability, aged between 18 and 60 years, and with an experience of facing earthquakes, participated in semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was used.

The safety needs of people with disabilities were categorized into three phases: those before an earthquake were considering building codes and resistant construction, building safe and resistant-to-climate-change shelters, and securing the room at the home and workplace; that during an earthquake was the existence of personal protection facilities; and those after an earthquake were adaptation of bathrooms in secure areas, prioritizing conex containers instead of tents, and sheltering in a safe and vermin-free area.

The sudden death of people with disabilities during disasters is preventable through proper planning and preparedness of emergency personnel. Hence, identifying the safety needs of these people and inclusion of such plans in disasters management systems can assure safety for people with disabilities during disasters. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;12:615–621)

One of the most prominent threats to the Israeli population is the risk from armed conflicts. Yet, promoting preparedness behavior proves to be highly difficult. Arguably, this is partially due to the chronic exposure of the Israeli public to this threat, a.k.a. “Victimization.” The purpose of this study was to examine whether victimization plays a prominent role in shaping preparedness behavior toward armed conflicts in Israel.

An online survey of 502 participants representing the adult Jewish population in Israel was carried out. A set of questionnaires designed to assess public perception of preparedness-affecting factors was used. The list of preparedness-affecting factors was conceptualized by an expert panel before the survey.

The results suggest that low prioritization and ignoring of civil-defense instructions during routine times are leading causes for non-compliance with preparedness recommendations. Ignoring instructions is also negatively correlated with reported preparedness. Misunderstanding the threat and fearing it also seem to be important factors.

The results of this study support the hypothesis that victimization plays an important role in shaping preparedness behavior toward armed conflicts among Jews in Israel. The findings demonstrate the complexity of the socio-psychological perspective of preparedness behavior in victimized populations. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;12:67–75)

Underground mining is associated with obvious risks that can lead to mass casualty incidents. Information about such incidents was analyzed in an integrated literature review.

A literature search (1980-2015) identified 564 modern-era underground mining reports from countries sharing similar occupational health legislation. These reports were condensed to 31 reports after consideration of quality grading and appropriateness to the aim. The Haddon matrix was used for structure, separating human factors from technical and environmental details, and timing.

Most of the reports were descriptive regarding injury-creating technical and environmental factors. The influence of rock characteristics was an important pre-event environmental factor. The organic nature of coal adds risks not shared in hard-rock mines. A sequence of mechanisms is commonly described, often initiated by a human factor in interaction with technology and step-wise escalation to involve environmental circumstances. Socioeconomic factors introduce heterogeneity. In the Haddon matrix, emergency medical services are mainly a post-event environmental issue, which were not well described in the available literature. The US Quecreek Coal Mine incident of 2002 stands out as a well-planned rescue mission.

Evaluation of the preparedness to handle underground mining incidents deserves further scientific attention. Preparedness must include the medical aspects of rescue operations. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;12:138–146)

In December 2019, a new type of coronavirus, called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), appeared in Wuhan, China. Serious outbreaks of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), related to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, have occurred throughout China and the world. Therefore, we intend to shed light on its potential clinical and epidemiological characteristics.

In this retrospective study, we included 50 confirmed fatal cases of SARS-CoV-2 reported on Chinese official media networks from January 16, 2020, to February 5, 2020. All the cases were confirmed by local qualified medical and health institutions. Specific information has been released through official channels. According to the contents of the reports, we recorded in detail the gender, age, first symptom date, death date, primary symptoms, chronic fundamental diseases, and other data of the patients, and carried out analyses and discussion.

In total, 50 fatal cases were reported: median age was 70 y old, and males were 2.33 times more likely to die than females. The median number of days from the first symptom to death was 13, and that length of time tended to be shorter among people aged 65 and older compared with those younger than 65 (12 days vs 17 days; P = 0.046). Therefore, the older patients had fewer number of days from the first symptom to death (r = -0.40; P = 0.012).

In our study, we found that most of the deaths were elderly men with chronic fundamental diseases, and their COVID-19 progression to death time was shorter. At the same time, we demonstrated that older men are more likely to become infected with COVID-19, and the risk of death is positively correlated with age.