Self-efficacy and barriers to disaster evacuation in Hong Kong

Elizabeth A. Newnham (), Satchit Balsari, Rex Pui Kin Lam, Shraddha Kashyap, Phuong Pham, Emily Y. Y. Chan, Kaylie Patrick and Jennifer Leaning
Additional contact information
Elizabeth A. Newnham: Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
Satchit Balsari: Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
Rex Pui Kin Lam: The University of Hong Kong
Shraddha Kashyap: The University of Western Australia
Phuong Pham: Harvard University
Emily Y. Y. Chan: Chinese University of Hong Kong
Kaylie Patrick: Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
Jennifer Leaning: Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health

International Journal of Public Health, 2017, vol. 62, issue 9, No 11, 1058 pages

Abstract: Abstract Objectives To investigate specific challenges to Hong Kong’s capacity for effective disaster response, we assessed perceived barriers to evacuation and citizens’ self-efficacy. Methods Global positioning system software was used to determine random sampling locations across Hong Kong, weighted by population density. The resulting sample of 1023 participants (46.5% female, mean age 40.74 years) were invited to complete questionnaires on emergency preparedness, barriers to evacuation and self-efficacy. Latent profile analysis and multinomial logistic regression were used to identify self-efficacy profiles and predictors of profile membership. Results Only 11% of the sample reported feeling prepared to respond to a disaster. If asked to evacuate in an emergency, 41.9% of the sample cited significant issues that would preclude them from doing so. Self-efficacy was negatively associated with barriers to disaster response so that participants reporting higher levels of self-efficacy cited fewer perceived barriers to evacuation. Conclusions Hong Kong has established effective strategies for emergency response, but concerns regarding evacuation and mobilisation remain. The findings indicate that improving self-efficacy for disaster response has potential to increase evacuation readiness.

Keywords: Disaster preparedness; Self-efficacy; Decision-making; Evacuation; Natural disaster; Asia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00038-017-1036-8 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:ijphth:v:62:y:2017:i:9:d:10.1007_s00038-017-1036-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/00038

DOI: 10.1007/s00038-017-1036-8

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Thomas Kohlmann, Nino Künzli and Andrea Madarasova Geckova

More articles in International Journal of Public Health from Springer, Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().