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Comparison of Two Successive Earthquake Awareness Campaigns in Israel: Improved Methodology or a Cumulative Effect?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2015

Gilead Shenhar ,
Michael Rozenfeld ,
Irina Radomislensky  and
Kobi Peleg
Gilead Shenhar*
Affiliation:
Gertner Institute for Health Policy & Epidemiology, National Center for Trauma & Emergency Medicine Research, Ramat-Gan, Israel Executive Master Program for Emergency and Disaster Management, School of Public Health, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel.
Michael Rozenfeld
Affiliation:
Gertner Institute for Health Policy & Epidemiology, National Center for Trauma & Emergency Medicine Research, Ramat-Gan, Israel Executive Master Program for Emergency and Disaster Management, School of Public Health, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel.
Irina Radomislensky
Affiliation:
Gertner Institute for Health Policy & Epidemiology, National Center for Trauma & Emergency Medicine Research, Ramat-Gan, Israel
Kobi Peleg
Affiliation:
Gertner Institute for Health Policy & Epidemiology, National Center for Trauma & Emergency Medicine Research, Ramat-Gan, Israel Executive Master Program for Emergency and Disaster Management, School of Public Health, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel.
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Shenhar Gilead, Gertner Institute for Health Policy & Epidemiology, National Center for Trauma & Emergency Medicine Research, Tel Hasomer, Ramat Gan, Israel 52621 (e-mail: shenharg@bezeqint.net).
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Abstract

Objectives

An effective way to reduce casualties from earthquakes is to increase population preparedness. During 2011 to 2013, Israeli authorities executed 3 national-level earthquake awareness campaigns. We aimed to assess the impact of these campaigns on the populace and the ability of the campaigns to produce a cumulative effect throughout the study period.

Methods

Two surveys were conducted 2 weeks after the end of the first campaign and the third campaign in a similar randomly selected representative sample.

Results

Exposure to the campaign proved to be a significant factor in increasing the knowledge of the respondents, giving a knowledge advantage of 1.5 times to respondents exposed to the campaign. However, the period of assessment proved to be an even more significant factor, with knowledge in 2013 being 2.3 times that in 2011. Additionally, a gap of up to 40% between the levels of trust and the perceived responsibility of respective authorities in the times of earthquake was found.

Conclusions

This study found an improvement in public knowledge regarding earthquake preparedness over the 3 years of the study. This may mean that an awareness campaign does not stand by itself, but should be part of an integrated long-term process in order to have a lasting effect on the population. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2016;10:74–79)

Keywords

communication campaignpreparednessrisk communicationearthquakepolicy making
Type
Original Research
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , February 2016 , pp. 74 - 79
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2015 

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