Preparing for effective communications during disasters: lessons from a World Health Organization quality improvement project

Position of the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior: The Importance of Emergency-Related Food and Nutrition Education Before, During, and After a Disaster

It is the position of the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior that for effective recovery from and resilience to disasters, it is essential that impacted individuals and communities have access to safe, nutritious, and culturally and contextually appropriate foods and beverages, and receive emergency-related food and nutrition education before, during, and after a disaster. Despite the increasing number, duration, and intensity of disasters worldwide, there is relatively limited guidance for research, policy, and practice about addressing the emergency-related food and nutrition needs of affected populations. Although nutrition emergencies tend to be understudied, emerging efforts are working to advance food and nutrition security during disaster response and recovery. To help elevate the importance of emergency-related food and nutrition education before, during, and after a disaster, Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior, which represents the unique professional interests of nutrition educators worldwide, summarizes the relevant literature and puts forth recommendations for all those who are engaged in this work in the following 4 key areas: (1) improving communication and outreach, (2) fostering community engagement and locally-driven preparedness, (3) building the evidence base and translating the evidence into action, and (4) training current professionals and the next generation of public health leaders. Altogether, before, during, and after a disaster, those who engage in this work, among other allies, can help elevate the importance of nutrition education and other strategies to promote healthy eating behaviors through research, policy, and practice.

Efficacy of Communication Techniques and Health Outcomes of Bushfire Smoke Exposure: A Scoping Review

Public health officials communicate the relevant risks of bushfire smoke exposure and associated health protection measures to affected populations. Increasing global bushfire incidence in the context of climate change motivated this scoping review. English-language publications related to adverse health outcomes following bushfire smoke exposure and publications relating to communication during natural disasters were included. Bushfire smoke events potentially increase healthcare contact, especially presentations triggered by respiratory illness. At-risk populations include those with underlying cardiorespiratory disease, elderly, paediatric, pregnant persons, and First Nations people. We found that social media, television, and radio are among the most common information sources utilised in bushfire smoke events. Message style, content, and method of delivery can directly influence message uptake and behaviour modification. Age, rurality, and geographical location influence information source preferences. Culturally and linguistically diverse groups and those with hearing, vision, and mobility-related disabilities may benefit from targeted health recommendations. This review emphasises the health effects of bushfire smoke exposure and related communication recommendations during and after bushfire smoke events. Additional investigation may further clarify the health effects of bushfire smoke exposure and efficacy of related health messaging, particularly in at-risk populations. Quantitative comparison of communication methods may yield more specific recommendations for future bushfire smoke events.

Importance of Immediate Electronic-Based Feedback to Enhance Feedback for First-Time CPR Trainees

Sudden cardiac arrest is one of the leading causes of death globally. The recommended clinical management in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases is the immediate initiation of high-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Training mannequins should be combined with technology that provides students with detailed immediate feedback on the quality of CPR performance. This study aimed to verify the impacts of the type of feedback (basic or detailed) the responders receive from the device while learning CPR and how it influences the quality of their performance and the motivation to improve their skills. The study was conducted at the Medical University of Lublin among 694 multi-professional health students during first aid classes on basic life support (BLS). The students first practiced on an adult mannequin with a basic control panel; afterward, the same mannequin was connected to a laptop, ensuring a detailed record of the performed activities through a projector. Next, the participants expressed their subjective opinion on how the feedback provided during the classes, basic vs. detailed, motivated them to improve the quality of their CPR performance. Additionally, during the classes, the instructor conducted an extended observation of students’ work and behavior. In the students’ opinion, the CPR training with detailed feedback devices provided motivation for learning and improving CPR proficiency than that with a basic control panel. Furthermore, the comments given from devices seemed to be more acceptable to the students, who did not see any bias in the device’s evaluation compared to that of the instructor. Detailed device feedback motivates student health practitioners to learn and improve the overall quality of CPR. The use of mannequins that provide detailed feedback during BLS courses can improve survival in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

Information Sharing and Community Resilience: Toward a Whole Community Approach to Surveillance and Combatting the "Infodemic"

Developing and strengthening systems for information sharing as well as detecting and addressing dis/misinformation can not only protect capacity for public health emergency preparedness and response, but potentially increase overall community resilience and social capital. More actively involving citizens in the government's collection and sharing of information can generate more public buy‐in so people will be more invested in making certain that such information is not arbitrarily dismissed or drowned out by conspiracy theories. Such an approach may have the added the benefit of creating stronger collaborative connections between government, individual citizens, and civic organizations to promote overall resilience. More community involvement in terms of the collection and dissemination of information can provide value in terms of preparation for a public health emergency by bolstering surveillance efforts to detect a threat early on. Getting the public more integrated into the public health information system can also be valuable in terms of diminishing the threat of mis/disinformation. Building up relationships between the public and the public health sector can advance the mission of improving community resilience through education, engagement, and collaboration. In this review, we will examine existing evidence for this approach and will then conclude with possible new approaches.

Disaster Risk Resilience in Colima-Villa de Alvarez, Mexico: Application of the Resilience Index to Flash Flooding Events

Resilience is an indicator of the ability of systems to withstand disruption within acceptable degradation parameters and also their recovery time. It is essential for public policies to understand how the population reacts to a particular risk. In this paper we have performed a study that quantitatively measures perceptions of flooding and resilience to flooding in the city of Colima-Villa de Alvarez, Mexico 2018-2019. A resilience index has been applied to ten zones of the city. In our research we assessed risk perception through a city-wide survey with questions based on a Likert scale. An analysis was performed on public knowledge of the existing security protocols for floods and evaluated the public perception of the availability of critical services, such as fresh water, electricity, food, drainage, communications and public transport during a flash flood events. This research has identified populated low resilience zones that can be considered as priorities for resource and effort to mitigate floods and their impacts. The novel resilience index developed in this work can also be applied to other type of risk that humans face and used as a basis for discussions about urban resilience.

Challenges of Hospital Response to the Twin Earthquakes of August 21, 2012, in East Azerbaijan, Iran

OBJECTIVE

As the cornerstone of any health system, hospitals have a crucial role in response to disasters. Because hospital experiences in disaster response can be instructive, this study examined the challenges of hospital response to the twin earthquakes of 2012 in East Azerbaijan, Iran.

METHODS

In this qualitative study, the challenges of hospital response in the East Azerbaijan earthquakes were examined through focus group discussions. Participants were selected purposefully, and focus group discussions continued until data saturation. The data were manually analyzed by using Strauss and Corbin's recommended method.

RESULTS

Hospitals were faced with 6 major challenges: lack of preparedness, lack of coordination, logistic deficiencies, patient/injured management, communication management, and other smaller challenges that were categorized in the "other challenges" category. The main theme was the lack of preparedness for disasters.

CONCLUSION

Although hospital preparedness is emphasized in credible references, this study showed that lack of preparedness is a major challenge for hospitals during disasters. Thus, it seems that hospital officials' disaster risk perception and hospital preparedness should be improved. In addition, hospital preparedness assessment indexes should be included in the hospital accreditation process. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:422-430).