Confidence in Health-Services Availability during Disasters and Emergency Situations-Does it Matter?-Lessons Learned from an Israeli Population Survey.
The association between health and community resilience is well established in the literature. However, maintaining continuity of healthcare services during emergencies, and their contribution in the context of community resiliency have not been sufficiently studied. This study aims to explore the relationship between the public's confidence in the availability of healthcare services during and following emergencies, and community resilience. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 3478 Israeli adults, using the Conjoint Community Resilience Assessment Measurement (CCRAM) tool. Associations between confidence in health services availability during emergencies, socio-demographic variables, and community resilience as measured by the CCRAM score were analyzed. The results revealed that confidence in the availability of health services positively correlated with community resilience score (r(3377) = 0.580, p < 0.001), and that it contributed significantly to increasing resilience (OR = 2.67, 95% CI (2.4-2.9), p < 0.001). Maintaining continuity of healthcare services during emergencies has effects beyond the provision of medical treatment. For instance, the confidence of the population in the availability of these services contributes to community resilience. In turn, this finding can be translated into practical resilience building actions and to facilitate community health.
['Cohen|Odeya|O|0000-0002-2427-6381', 'Shapira|Stav|S|', 'Aharonson-Daniel|Limor|L|', 'Shamian|Judith|J|']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D000368:Aged D000369:Aged, 80 and over D003153:Community Health Services D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies D004189:Disaster Planning D004190:Disasters D004630:Emergencies D005260:Female D006296:Health Services D006297:Health Services Accessibility D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D011634:Public Health D055500:Resilience, Psychological D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires D055815:Young Adult
community resilience CCRAM health services availability emergency management public health in disasters