Journal of Disaster and Emergency Research

Improving Universal Health Coverage: Optimism or Pessimism for Vulnerable Population in Emergency Crises?

Joseph Kimuli Balikuddembe — Tue, 31 May 2022 07:25:57 +0000

It has been recently revealed that Universal Health Coverage (UHC) has increased from 45% in 2000 to 66% in 2017 ,with commendable achievements, particularly, in increased life expectancies and a decreased maternal and child mortality rates. This follows the international community's renewed commitment to tackle the challenges countries face, through the Sustainable Development Goals. This includes UHC which is supposed to be achieved by 2030. UHC aims at ensuring equitable, quality, and affordable health services for everybody, in order not to suffer financial hardship. However, this paper raises concern on how effectively the progress has been attained so far, and serves the goal of financial risk protection and access to quality health services for the vulnerable in emergency crises. This is because they are often severely disadvantaged due to numerous conditions aggravated by the political, economic, social, structural, or geographical factors.

Estimation of Injuries in a Population-based Study by Stratified Cluster Sampling and Network Scale-up Methods

Zahra Sehat, Esmaeil Fakharian, Mojtaba Sehat, Abdollah Omidi — Tue, 31 May 2022 07:29:01 +0000

Introduction: Today, one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality among people all across the world is Injury. Injuries pose an important challenge for the health system and account for 28% of the deaths per day in Iran. Iran is in the 5th place for road traffic death rates globally.

Objective: This was a cross sectional study aimed to estimate annual incidence rates of injury in individuals above 15 in Kashan, Iran.

Methods: In this population-based cross-sectional study, people above 15 years in households residing in Kashan during 2018-2019 were studied The sample had a twofold design, Stratified Cluster Sampling method and network Scale-up method. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 22 (Chi-square and T-test and Logistic regression analysis) and Stata 14 software.

Results: This study describes the study setting, sampling, data collection and management, quality control and assurance, and the statistical analysis. In this study, the annual incidence rate from all kinds of trauma was estimated at 70.61(62.60-78.70) per 1000 person-years, and the death caused by injury was 4.63(34.32-56.12) per 1000 person-years. In addition, in network scale-up method incidence rate of all kinds of trauma was 57.1 and the death caused by trauma was 3.47 per 1000 person-years.

Conclusion: population-based studies were used to evaluate injuries and outcomes of trauma, so that managers realize where attention is needed regarding preventive programs in this city. Using indirect sampling techniques can be cost-effective and time-consuming, and can provide us with the information urgently needed.

The Impact of Natural Disasters on Income Inequality in Indonesia

Aloysius Gunadi Brata — Tue, 31 May 2022 07:30:51 +0000

Introduction: The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between natural disasters and income inequality in Indonesia, a developing country with a high risk of natural hazards and high population densities in disaster-prone regions.

Methods: This paper used cross-province panel data during the period between 2010 and 2016. Natural disasters data were obtained from Indonesia National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB), while Gini index data as an indicator of income inequality were obtained from Indonesia Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS). To estimate the impact of natural disasters on income inequality, this paper used a fixed effect regression model.

Results: It was found that the lagged variable of natural disasters positively affected the Gini index. The coefficient of this variable was 0.0093 at a significance level of 5%. It indicated that natural disasters worsen income inequality. This study also showed that natural disasters that negatively affected the Gini index were hydrological disasters in year t (between -0.0179 and -0.0199 at a significance level of 0.1%). Meanwhile, meteorological disasters tended to increase income inequality in the subsequent years. The coefficients were 0.0282 and 0.0187, and were statistically significant at least 5%. In addition, meteorological disasters consistently affected income distribution in all Western Indonesia (Sumatra, Java, and Bali) and other islands. The coefficients were 0.0205 and 0.0510 at a significance level of 5% indicating that meteorological disasters tended to increase inequality in income distribution.

But these climatological disasters had a negative impact on income distribution in other islands in years t and t-1 (-0.0192 and -0.0680 at the significance level of 1% and 5%, respectively).

Conclusion: The findings of this study imply that designing policies to deal with inequality at the regional level should also concern the different influences of various natural disasters on income inequality.

Application of Mechanical Chest Compression Devices during Emergency Helicopter Flights

Mohammad Hossein Esmaeilzadeh, Shandiz Moslehi — Tue, 31 May 2022 07:32:55 +0000

The Article Abstract is not available.

Attitude, Knowledge, and Practice Response of Nurses during COVID-19 Outbreak in Military Hospital, 2021

Mahdiye Nejadshafiee — Tue, 31 May 2022 07:38:38 +0000

Introduction: COVID- 19 outbreak was a threat and opportunity for health care systems. Nurses play an important role in COVID-19 pandemic management. Inadequate knowledge, inappropriate attitude and, practice response among nurses might lead to delayed care, and result in the rapid spread of infection. Therefore, this study aims to determine the attitude, knowledge, and practice response among nurses towards the COVID-19 outbreak.

Methods: This cross- sectional, descriptive study was conducted at a military hospital (Seyed Alshohada Hospital), based a on census sampling method in Kerman, Iran. Data were collected from January to February, 2021, using a self- report questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed among 122 nurses. Data were imported to SPSS v.17 for analysis.

Results: A total of 99 nurses participated in this study. Knowledge, attitude, and practice scores towards COVID- 19 were good. According to the data obtained, the majority had a bachelor^, s degree, and most respondents were women (68%). The result of this study showed that 98% took practical infection prevention measures towards COVID-19. Also, our findings indicated that 91% of the study participants had favorable attitudes towards COVID-19.

Discussion: Results showed that participants were knowledgeable, held positive attitudes, and took effective measures for COVID-19. COVID-19 pandemic and other novel diseases are a challenge for all health systems; therefore, it is necessary to enhance knowledge and skills of nurses.

Disaster Risk Reduction Lessons from February 7, 2021 Flash Flood in Uttarakhand Province of India

Mon, 20 Jun 2022 04:44:08 +0000

204 people were killed, while two hydropower projects located in close proximity to Rini (13.2 MW) and Tapoban (520 MW) were severely damaged in Dhauliganga flood of February 7, 2021, in the Indian Himalaya. In addition, it caused massive loss of farm animals, agricultural land, property and infrastructure. This incidence occurred during the winter season when the discharge of glacier fed rivers is minimal, and the region did not experience rains around the time of the flood. Based on a detailed review of post-disaster search and rescue efforts, and bottlenecks faced by disaster managers, authors recommend (i) scientific documentation of past catastrophic events, (ii) detailed assessment of the risk posed by various hazards, (iii) legally binding disaster risk assessment, and a reduction mandate for major infrastructure projects, (iv) robust, reliable and redundant warning generation and dissemination infrastructure, (v) diversification of assets, and (vi) creating a dedicated cadre of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) professions.

Collaborative Practice during Forest Fires Disaster: A Narrative Policy Framework

Alamsyah Alamsyah — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 05:11:05 +0000

This study aims to explain collaborative practices during forest fire prevention and mitigation in Indonesia using a narrative policy framework (NPF). The primary data was collected from 30 informants related to forest fire mitigation in South Sumatra Province (SSP) using in-depth interviews. The secondary data was from online media that publishes news on forest fires. This study adopts a deductive approach and an interactive model during organizing, processing, and analyzing using ATLAS.ti 8 for Windows. Based on the NPF approach, this study has found that there are different views among the policy actors about the character (the villain, the hero, and the victims), the plot, and the solution policy (moral of the story) within the narrative of forest fires in SSP. This study recommends government institutions increase the quality of taskforce governance so that it can facilitate the learning process, enhance trust, minimize conflict tension, and promote participative decision-making between policy actors within the forest fire policy sub-system.

Comparing the Ability of FAST and CT scan in Determining Free Fluid in Stable Patients with Blunt Abdominal Trauma

Mon, 20 Jun 2022 05:11:16 +0000

Background: Blunt abdominal trauma (BAT) has a high rate of morbidity and mortality. In the past few years, focused assessment with sonography in trauma (FAST) and computerized tomography (CT) scan have been extensively utilized and studied in management of BAT. The present study aims to compare the diagnostic accuracy of FAST and CT scan in detection of free fluid in BAT patients.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, patients with BAT were evaluated by both FAST and CT scans in Shahid Sadoughi Hospital, Yazd, Iran, from May 2017 to February 2018. The results were compared and the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of FAST and CT scan were calculated. In addition, the accuracy of FASTs performed by emergency medicine residents (EMR) was compared with those procedures performed by radiology residents (RR) in detecting abdominal free fluid following blunt trauma.

Results: In this study, 175 patients were participated and most of them were males. The commonest cause of trauma was a road traffic accident (RTA). When FAST was performed by EMRs, sensitivity was 96.3%, specificity 75%, 60% positive and 98.1% negative predictive values and 94.8% accuracy in true evaluating free fluid , and Sensitivity 97.5%, specificity 83.3%, 71.4% positive and 98.8% negative predictive values when FAST was performed by RRs.

Conclusion: Based on this study finding, it seems that FAST is highly sensitive, specific and accurate in the initial evaluation of patients with BAT.