Analyzing Disaster Preparedness at Personal and Community Level: Senior Citizens in Bangladesh

Abstract

This study's primary goal is to examine how prepared elderly individuals, their families, and community members are in BD households, as well as how related factors affect their readiness for unexpected disasters like earthquakes and fires. This study has followed mixed methodology: qualitative and quantitative. Household survey and In-depth personal interview, In-depth KII with semi structured questionnaire and observation methods have been applied for data collection. Study area is a village called Gangtiyara, which is located in Debidwar upazila under the district of Cumilla which falls in medium earthquake zone of Bangladesh part. The present study has revealed that 62.8% female are illiterate and overall, 23.3% have completed SSC or above and 72.6% have no present income. No elderly people are found who have profound preparedness knowledge against earthquake and fire and only 38.4% senior citizens have physical and mental ability to face these sudden disasters. The research also delineates that a number of criteria, including age, health, education, financial situation, and being the head of the household, have a significant influence on how prepared elderly people are for disasters. The result from chi square test indicates that good education qualification (χ²=14.511), being head of the family (χ²=7.997) and earning status (χ²=11.668) have a medium to strong positive correlation with earthquake preparedness. Associate with the result of the binary logistic regression model indicates that individuals who have completed SSC or above are more likely to be prepared (S.E.= .747) for disaster-related emergency situations. Again, in the case of fire incident, chi square test reveals that age has medium to strong (χ²= 12.646) positive correlation with fire hazard preparedness. A hopeful significant finding is social network which provide sense of security to elderly people in sudden disaster. The study also finds out a huge knowledge gap regarding to sudden disasters specially earthquake among family members and community people which condition make elderly people more vulnerable to earthquake and fire hazard. Another significant finding is the absence of proper meetings, seminar, training about earthquake and fire hazard.  The elderly people, family members and community people have opinioned that practical and applicable elderly policy and mass spread of knowledge about disaster preparedness will enhance awareness among the elderly people, family members and community people which will help to reduce disaster risk of elderly people.

The Dhaka University Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Vol. 14(2), 2025, P 1-15