Perceptions of Older Adults Regarding Evacuation in the Event of a Natural Disaster (original) (raw)
Related papers
Motivating rural older residents to prepare for disasters: moving beyond personal benefits
Ageing and Society, 2015
ABSTRACTIn the United States of America (USA), older adults in rural areas are at increased risk for adverse outcomes of disasters, partly due to medical needs, limited or long geographic distances from community resources, and less knowledge and motivation about preparedness steps. Older residents and ageing service providers in a rural community in the USA were interviewed regarding their perceptions about disasters and preparedness, and their reactions to the preparedness training programme using the concepts of the Extended Parallel Process Model. Participants generally indicated low motivation to engage in preparedness behaviours despite perceptions of personal risk and beliefs that preparedness behaviours were easy and could improve disaster outcomes. A theme of social relationships emerged from the data, with participants identifying social relationships as resources, barriers and motivators. People surrounding older adults can support or deter their preparedness behaviours, ...
Disaster medicine and public health preparedness, 2017
This article conceptualized emergency preparedness as a complex, multidimensional construct and empirically examined an array of sociodemographic, motivation, and barrier variables as predictors of levels of emergency preparedness. The authors used the 2010 wave of the Health and Retirement Study's emergency preparedness module to focus on persons 50 years old and older in the United States by use of logistic regression models and reconsidered a previous analysis. The models demonstrated 3 key findings: (1) a lack of preparedness is widespread across virtually all sociodemographic variables and regions of the country; (2) an authoritative voice, in the role of health care personnel, was a strong predictor of preparedness; and (3) previous experience in helping others in a disaster predisposes individuals to be better prepared. Analyses also suggest the need for caution in creating simple summative indexes and the need for further research into appropriate measures of preparednes...
Aged Citizens in the Warning Phase of Disasters: Re-Examining the Evidence
The International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 1997
While there is a strong consistent empirical literature on older citizens in the recovery period of disasters, there is much less research on how the elderly respond to disaster warnings. Furthermore, there are conflicting findings among these studies, some characterizing the elderly as noncompliant and less likely to cooperate with authorities, while others find the elderly no less responsive than other age groups. The current article reviews the literature in this area and tries to sort out conflicting findings in terms of the timing of the research and methodological considerations. Data are analyzed from nine disasters—representing flood events, volcanic eruptions, and hazardous materials emergencies—which show citizens over sixty-five years old no less likely to comply with disaster warnings.
Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 2013
C hronic conditions, disability limitations (mobility, cognitive, and sensory), and the need for assistance with activities of daily living are characteristics of elderly and medically fragile populations. Theory suggests that households with these vulnerability attributes are more likely to suffer storm-induced adverse and prolonged health consequences and, therefore, ought to evidence an increased propensity to evacuate prior to a severe storm event. Yet despite being more sensitive to storm disruption, the elderly and medically fragile populations are only slightly more likely to evacuate in the face of impending storms. This suggests, for these groups, there may be other factors such as income, transportation, and social and familial networks that may be attenuating the propensity to evacuate. The public health significance is found in that the propensity to shelter in place, rather than evacuate, may contribute to disparate health outcomes. Data illustrating the prevalence of these conditions and the propensity to shelter in place are derived from a sampling of Hampton Roads households following the 2011 Hurricane Irene.
Findings, 2024
This study examines how individuals affected by Hurricane Ian (2022) perceived safety-related issues during the evacuation based on a Pollfish survey (n=100) in Lee County, Florida. 62% of survey respondents evacuated, with the majority going to a friend or relative's home, and personal vehicles were the primary mode of transportation. Greatest concerns during evacuation included the cost of food and amenities, traffic congestion, and standing water. Upon returning home, primary concerns were disaster debris, fuel availability, and the availability of food and amenities. A binary logistic regression was employed to explore socioeconomic factors' impact on evacuation decisions, revealing significant factors.
Who Evacuates When Hurricanes Approach? The Role of Risk, Information, and Location*
Social Science Quarterly, 2010
Objective. This article offers an expanded perspective on evacuation decision making during severe weather. In particular, this work focuses on uncovering determinants of individual evacuation decisions. Methods. We draw on a survey conducted in 2005 of residents in the eight-county Houston metropolitan area after Hurricane Rita made landfall on September 24, 2005. Results. We find that evacuation decisions are influenced by a heterogeneous set of parameters, including perceived risk from wind, influence of media and neighbors, and awareness of evacuation zone, that are often at variance with one of the primary measures of risk used by public officials to order or recommend an evacuation (i.e., storm surge). We further find that perceived risk and its influence on evacuation behavior is a local phenomenon more readily communicated by and among individuals who share the same geography, as is the case with residents living inside and outside official risk areas. Conclusions. Who evacuates and why is partially dependent on where one lives because perceptions of risk are not uniformly shared across the area threatened by an approaching hurricane and the same sources and content of information do not have the same effect on evacuation behavior. Hence, efforts to persuade residential populations about risk and when, where, and how to evacuate or shelter in place should originate in the neighborhood rather than emanating from blanket statements from the media or public officials. Our findings also raise important policy questions (included in the discussion section) that require further study and consideration by those responsible with organizing and implementing evacuation plans.
Evacuation decision making and behavioral responses: Individual and household
Natural Hazards Review, 2007
Researchers have examined a wide range of factors that affect evacuation decisions after people hear hurricane forecasts and other information. This review of the literature focuses on three broad areas of research that often overlap: warning, risk perception, and evacuation research. Whereas it is challenging to demarcate the literature along these lines, we believe each of these areas represents important dimensions of evacuation decision making. The literature on warning focuses to varying degrees on warning as a social process, rather than a simple result of hearing official warnings. Warnings by themselves do not motivate evacuation-people must perceive risk. The extensive literature on objective and subjective processes in risk perception has to be evaluated. The review concludes with a focus on some important work in modeling evacuation and evacuation decision-making. Finally, we present recommendations for future research that draws on the strength of earlier work while focusing more directly on risk, the information included in hurricane forecasts, and the timing of those forecasts.