{"title":"Health problems among disaster responders to the 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake: a cross-sectional study.","authors":"Karin Hugelius, Jason Murphy, Karin Blomberg","doi":"10.1186/s12873-024-01143-2","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>The aim of this study was to describe perceived health problems among disaster responders after the earthquake in eastern Turkey/Syria in February 2023.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A non-probability cross-sectional study was conducted using an online survey.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A total of 525 local (18%) and international disaster responders (81%) participated in the study. Of these responders, 46% reported physical or mental health problems during or after their deployment, 15% required medical care during the mission, and 7% required medical evacuation. The most common health problems during the field mission were feeling scared or unsafe, sleeping problems, and headache. After the mission, fatigue, sleeping problems, and feeling depressed were the most frequently reported health problems. The local responders perceived significantly more health problems than did the international responders. Approximately 11% of the participants could not return to their ordinary work after deployment because of infections or mental health issues.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Physical and mental health problems are commonly perceived by disaster responders and may reduce the effectiveness of disaster response. Raising awareness of health risks among disaster response workers and employers is essential to ensure proper duty of care and should include reparations and medical support during and after disaster response operations.</p>","PeriodicalId":9002,"journal":{"name":"BMC Emergency Medicine","volume":"24 1","pages":"226"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11610220/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"BMC Emergency Medicine","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12873-024-01143-2","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"EMERGENCY MEDICINE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Objective: The aim of this study was to describe perceived health problems among disaster responders after the earthquake in eastern Turkey/Syria in February 2023.
Methods: A non-probability cross-sectional study was conducted using an online survey.
Results: A total of 525 local (18%) and international disaster responders (81%) participated in the study. Of these responders, 46% reported physical or mental health problems during or after their deployment, 15% required medical care during the mission, and 7% required medical evacuation. The most common health problems during the field mission were feeling scared or unsafe, sleeping problems, and headache. After the mission, fatigue, sleeping problems, and feeling depressed were the most frequently reported health problems. The local responders perceived significantly more health problems than did the international responders. Approximately 11% of the participants could not return to their ordinary work after deployment because of infections or mental health issues.
Conclusions: Physical and mental health problems are commonly perceived by disaster responders and may reduce the effectiveness of disaster response. Raising awareness of health risks among disaster response workers and employers is essential to ensure proper duty of care and should include reparations and medical support during and after disaster response operations.
期刊介绍:
BMC Emergency Medicine is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that considers articles on all urgent and emergency aspects of medicine, in both practice and basic research. In addition, the journal covers aspects of disaster medicine and medicine in special locations, such as conflict areas and military medicine, together with articles concerning healthcare services in the emergency departments.