Previously submitted to: JMIR Formative Research (no longer under consideration since Sep 12, 2022)
Date Submitted: Jul 2, 2021
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Flood Disaster Preparedness Among Communities in Selangor, Malaysia: A Randomised Controlled Trial of Health Education-Based Intervention (HEBI)
ABSTRACT
Background:
Natural disasters caused by climate change, such as floods, can cause damage to homes, commercial buildings, agricultural and pastoral land, public goods, and other physical properties. However, there is a risk to health and safety during the flood. The community's flood disaster preparedness always received little attention, then to prevent and manage the problem, necessary action must be taken.
Objective:
The objective of this study was to develop, implement, and evaluate the effect of health education-based intervention (HEBI) based on knowledge, skills, and preparedness to improve flood disaster preparedness among the community in Selangor.
Methods:
A single-blind cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted at six districts in Selangor. A literature review was done to examine the burden prevalence of disaster and its preparedness. Based on the findings, a Health Education Intervention Module based on Health Believes Model Theory was developed for implementation at a community level. Contribution by the panel of experts will attain for the development of the module. Validation of the module was carried out to ensure suitable implemented and effective disaster preparedness among the community. SPSS 25.0 was used for all analyses. The Generalized Estimating Equations assessed the statistical differences between multiple continuous dependent variables by independent variable while controlling for covariates.
Results:
Baseline results showed that most of our participants no knowledge about the disaster (62.3%), followed by knowing about the disaster (37.7%). A significant difference was observed in knowledge, skills and preparedness for baseline, T1 and T2 result (P < .001). The health education intervention (HEBI) was effective in improving the knowledge (P < .001), skills (P < .001), and preparedness (P < .001) on the disaster of the community as compared to baseline analyzed using Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) after controlling the covariate.
Conclusions:
Flood disaster preparedness among the community was crucial to ensure that every decision taken during disaster reduces implication to humans. The HEBI module showed effectiveness in improving community preparedness in preparing for flood disasters in three outcomes: knowledge, skill, and preparedness. This module also can be used in planning flood disaster preparedness training at the community level, in collaboration with relevant agencies such as the National Agency Disaster Malaysia (NADMA) and Ministry of Health, Malaysia (MOH). Clinical Trial: Thaiclinicaltrials.org TCTR20200202002; https://www.thaiclinicaltrials.org/show/TCTR20200202002
Citation
