Behavioral, health- related and demographic risk factors of death in floods: A case-control study

Arezoo Yari, Homa Yousefi Khoshsabegheh, Yadolah Zarezadeh, Ali Ardalan, Mohsen Soufi Boubakran, Abbas Ostadtaghizadeh and Mohamad Esmaeil Motlagh

PLOS ONE, 2021, vol. 16, issue 12, 1-16

Abstract: During the first half of 2019, many provinces of Iran were affected by floods, which claimed the lives of 82 people. The present study aimed to investigate the behavioral, health related and demographic risk factors associated with deaths due to floods. We measured the odds ratio and investigated the contribution and significance of the factors in relation to mortality. This case-control study was conducted in the cities affected by flood in Iran. Data were collected on the flood victims using a questionnaire. Survivors, a member of the flood victim’s family, were interviewed. In total, 77 subjects completed the survey in the case group, and 310 subjects completed the survey in the control group. The findings indicated that factors such as the age of less than 18 years, low literacy, being trapped in buildings/cars, and risky behaviors increased the risk of flood deaths. Regarding the behavioral factors, perceived/real swimming skills increased the risk of flood deaths although it may seem paradoxical. This increment is due to increased self confidence in time of flood. On the other hand, skills and abilities such as evacuation, requesting help, and escape decreased the risk of flood deaths. According to the results, the adoption of support strategies, protecting vulnerable groups, and improving the socioeconomic status of flood-prone areas could prevent and reduce the risk of flood deaths.

Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0262005 (text/html)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id= ... 62005&type=printable (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0262005

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0262005

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in PLOS ONE from Public Library of Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by plosone ().