Citation

Cohen O, Shapira S, Aharonson-Daniel L, Shamian J. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019; 16(19): e16193519.

Affiliation

International Council of Nurses ICN President Emerita, FAAN, 88 Rockford Rd, Toronto, ON M2R3A7, Canada. shamianjudith@gmail.com.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph16193519

PMID

31547187

Abstract

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.

Language: en

Keywords

CCRAM; community resilience; emergency management; health services availability; public health in disasters