Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #109647

Alice Hausman, PhD, MPH¹, Brenda F. Seals, PhD, MPH¹, Youngkyun Park, MS¹, and David Elesh, PhD². (1) Department of Public Health, Temple University, 304 Vivacqua Hall, 1700 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19122, 215-204-5112, hausman@temple.edu, (2) Dept. Sociology, Temple University, 732 Gladfelter Hall, 1115 W. Berks Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122

Recent research on the psychological sequelae of disasters, both man-made and natural, suggests that community characteristics are important mediators of successful response and recovery. This paper presents results from a random-digit dialed survey of the Philadelphia metropolitan area where community socio-economic characteristics, including employment, education level, age of housing stock, and demographic markers were measured along with residents' concerns regarding emergencies and their level of preparedness. Preliminary results show that residents of communities characterized by lower socio-economic status and greater economic instability were significantly more concerned about terrorism affecting their community than were residents of more affluent or more economically stable communities (p<.000). At the same time, residents in these older struggling communities had taken more steps to be prepared than residents in more stable communities (F=3.5; p=.008). On the other hand, there were no differences among community types in reported confidence in preparation (p=.55), or willingness to volunteer in times of emergencies (p=.296). Details of these differences are presented, as are comparisons regarding baseline anxiety levels and attitudes towards preparedness. These results point to the importance of community level processes for both promoting emergency preparedness and assisting with recovery after events.

Learning Objectives:

• 1. Participants will be able to list concerns and fears the general public has about disasters.
• 2. Participants will be able to describe how communities differ in expressed levels of anxiety, concerns about terrorism, and level of preparedness.
• 3. Participants will be able to describe the features of a population based randomly sampled survey.

Keywords: Community Education, Planning

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.