Individual emergency preparedness survey among Canadians in Lower Mainland, BC

Abstract

Background: BC residents are prone to natural disasters and emergencies such as earthquakes and prolonged power outage due to severe weather and flooding. To minimize and mitigate the impacts, individuals should prepare in advance for any potential emergencies. There are studies showing only half of the Canadians, in general, are well prepared. Concrete evidence of factors affecting individual’s emergency preparedness are not clear. Therefore, this research study aims to investigate the association between BC residents’ emergency preparedness level and demographic/socio-economic factors. Methods: Housed on SurveyMonkey, the online self-administered survey was distributed via Facebook and Reddit to survey local BC residents. The survey was posted on sub-groups based on topic-relevance and geographic areas that are located within Lower Mainland. The sampling period is approximately one month, which the results were analyzed by the NCSS program. Results: Overall, less than half (41%) of the participants reported to have an emergency kit at home. The chi-square test results show that two factors, language (p=0.025) and status of occupancy (p=0.048) are significantly associated with level of emergency preparedness. Conclusion: There are significant associations between level of emergency preparedness and demographic factors - language barrier and status of occupancy. People who do not use English as their primary language found to be less prepared to those who use English as their primary language. Renters, as compared to homeowners, found to be less prepared as well. This serves as supporting data and evidence to transit these findings to promote emergency readiness among residents in Metro Vancouver.