Citation

Al-Rousan TM, Rubenstein LM, Wallace RB. Rev. Panam. Salud Publica 2014; 36(6): 402-408.

Vernacular Title

Preparación de los adultos mayores en los Estados Unidos para hacer frente a los desastres naturales: encuesta a escala nacional.

Affiliation

Departamento de Epidemiología, Escuela Universitaria de Salud Pública, Universidad de Iowa, Ciudad de Iowa, Estados Unidos de América, tala-al-rousan@uiowa.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Organizacion Panamericana de la Salud (PAHO))

DOI

unavailable

PMID

25711752

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: We sought to determine natural disaster preparedness levels among older US adults and assess factors that may adversely affect health and safety during such incidents.

METHODS: We sampled adults aged 50 years or older (n = 1 304) from the 2010 interview survey of the Health and Retirement Study. The survey gathered data on general demographic characteristics, disability status or functional limitations, and preparedness-related factors and behaviors. We calculated a general disaster preparedness score by using individual indicators to assess overall preparedness.

RESULTS: Participant (n = 1 304) mean age was 70 years (SD = 9.3). Only 34.3% reported participating in an educational program or reading materials about disaster preparation. Nearly 15% reported using electrically powered medical devices that might be at risk in a power outage. The preparedness score indicated that increasing age, physical disability, and lower educational attainment and income were independently and significantly associated with worse overall preparedness.

CONCLUSIONS: Despite both greater vulnerability to disasters and continuous growth in the number of older US adults, many of the substantial problems discovered are remediable and require attention in the clinical, public health, and emergency management sectors of society.

Language: es