Sharing of research findings on Chinese urban and rural disaster health risk literacy in University of Western Australia

To promoting academic exchange in the field of disaster and medical humanitarian response, CCOUC Director Prof. Emily Chan paid a 3-day to University of Western Australia (UWA) in Perth and presented two public lectures on urban and rural disaster health risk literacy at the Institute of Advanced Studies of UWA on 1 October 2014.

The first lecture entitled “Are individual health emergency risk perception associated with household-based health emergency preparedness in Hong Kong? Overview of findings” looked into the findings of a population-based survey conducted in 2012 in Hong Kong on disaster health risk literacy, which describes the capability of individuals to acquire, evaluate and comprehend basic disaster information in order to be prepared for disasters, to implement emergency responses and to mitigate the effects of disaster.

The following major findings about disaster preparedness in this densely populated cosmopolis in China were communicated to the audience, which highlight the gaps between disaster risk perception and disaster risk preparedness:

Individual Preparedness: only 26.1% reported have ever received some form of first aid training (n=1,002).
Household based preparedness, 90% basic supplies such as face-masks, band-aids and basic medication such as anti-pyretic drugs were reported available. First aid kit (49.3%; n=1,002) and non-perishable food and drinking water (57.3%; n=1,002) were less commonly reported.
Among households with at least a member with chronic disease (n=810), only 47.1% of them prepared enough long-term medications to their chronically ill member.
Despite fire hazard was perceived as the most threatening disaster in Hong Kong, only 11.5% (n=994) of the respondents possessed a form of fire equipment within their household.

The second lecture entitled “Disaster preparedness and response in remote, disaster-prone, ethnic minority-based communities in China: What have we learnt so far?” in turn examined disaster health risk literary in remote rural China learnt in CCOUC’s flagship Ethnic Minority Health project since 2009, focusing on the recent trip to the mountainous Hongyan Village of Yi ethnic minorityin southern Sichuan Province.

The following are some major findings from questionnaire surveys shared with the audience

Disaster Risk Literacy: Awareness of disaster health risk is not necessary associated with residing in a disaster-prone location. Perception of vulnerability is not related to awareness.
Preparedness actions: Preparedness has a resources dimension, but it seems “lack of realization of importance” has more association with preparedness.
Effectiveness of interventions: Education/Knowledge transfer interventions demonstrate sustained improvement of knowledge but confidence level drops with time.