Household Preparedness for Public Health Emergencies among Urban Communities of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India - A Community Based Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND Public health emergencies including a disaster are inevitable. Moreover, the vulnerability and health impacts are more profound in urban densely populated dwellings. Household preparedness for public health emergencies need to be focused to minimize the morbidity and mortality associated with such situations. METHODS An urban community, situated in field practice area of a tertiary care teaching institute of Ahmedabad, Gujarat was approached for a cross-sectional study through door to door structured interviews. A pre-designed questionnaire was administered to assess the knowledge as well as preparedness for public health emergencies among the respondents. The adult representative family member from each of the selected households formed the sampling unit. Statistical tests of association and logistic regression analysis were used to find our relationship between household preparedness and some of the independent factors. RESULTS From a total of 405 households, majority of the respondents were male (65.7 %), married (92.1 %), having secondary level education (43.7 %) and belonged to socio-economic class IV (37.8 %). Only 44 % of the respondents had experienced any form of public health emergency in the past and only 14.6 % had an experience of relief work. “Flash floods following heavy rains” and “earthquake” were the commonest disaster experienced by the respondents. None of the surveyed households had first aid kit or a fire-extinguisher. Majority of the respondents (N = 280, 69.1 %) were aware of emergency contact numbers in case of public health emergencies. The overall household level preparedness was only 12.59 %. Perceived susceptibility to public health emergencies and household preparedness had significant statistical associations with education, occupation, type of house and socio-economic class. CONCLUSIONS Education, occupation, and social class play roles in both perception as well as household preparedness for public health emergencies. A very low level of preparedness and their possible factors should be addressed through adequate channels so that the damage due to such emergencies could be minimized. KEYWORDS Disaster, Household Preparedness, Public Health Emergency, Urban Community