Addressing the real and perceived gaps in emergency preparedness among sub-populations

The threat large-scale disasters pose to individual and public health in the United States is real and pronounced. One way to mitigate some of the vulnerability to large-scale disasters among the general public is to encourage personal preparedness, yet many individual Americans are either ignorant of the steps they should take to be prepared or unprepared for large-scale disasters despite the knowledge they should become prepared. This study attempted to identify any gaps in perceived and measurable preparedness among the general population to compare preparedness levels among minority or historically disadvantaged sub-populations to the general population. We used 2006 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data from the 5 states that opted to include the preparedness module. Respondents were defined as being ‘‘prepared'' if they were deficient in no more than one of the actionable preparedness measures included on the BRFSS. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted comparing preparedness rates based on subjective preparedness measures as well as demographic factors. Although 78% of respondents reported feeling prepared for a disaster, just 45% of respondents were actually prepared by objective measures. In addition to this preparedness gap, Hispanics, young adults, and those with less than a high school education were all less likely to be prepared than the general population. This study revealed a pervasive lack of disaster preparedness overall and a substantial gap between perceived and objective preparedness.