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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Alice Hausman, PhD, MPH, Department of Public Health, Temple University, 1700 North Broad, Room 304, Philadelphia, PA 19122, 215-204-8726, hausman@temple.edu, Youngkyun Park, MS, Risk, Insurance, and Healthcare Management, Temple University, 1810 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122, and Brenda Seals, PhD, MPH, Department of Public Health, Temple University, 1700 N. Broad St., Room 304, Philadelphia, PA 19122.

Emergency situations, by their very nature, generate fear, uncertainty and short- and long-term mental distress consequences. Community level factors, such as social networks and connectedness, are likely to interact with individual level characteristics to shape people's response to the threat of terrorism and their ability to recover after disaster events. The purpose of this study was to investigate how Social Capital might mediate concerns about terrorism and promote appropriate responses for preparedness. Results from a random-digit dialed survey of the Philadelphia metropolitan area conducted in 2004 with over 700 residents were used to assess the relationship of Social Capital with generalized anxiety and concerns, attitudes, and practice of emergency preparedness. Multivariate regression analysis results show that Social Capital is positively associated with increased preparedness (b=.438; p=.003) and inversely associated with general anxiety (b=-.086; p=.006): the more perceived Social Capital, the less anxiety people expressed. Interestingly, Social Capital is positively associated with concerns of terrorism (b=.153; p=.001). In conclusion, we discuss how social networks and community connectedness may facilitate information flow such that both preparedness and concerns about the impact of terrorism on the community may be increased. At the same time, the connectedness reduces residents' mental distress that might be associated with concerns about terrorism.

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 elements of social capital and associated measures.
• 3. Participants will be able to describe different factors that contribute to differences in expressed levels of anxiety, concerns about terrorism, and level of preparedness.
• 4. Participants will be able to describe the features of a population based randomly sampled survey.

Keywords: Community Assets, Emergency

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered

Handout (.ppt format, 278.5 kb)