title: Social vulnerability index for the older people-Hong Kong and New York City as examples.
abstract: Many world cities have suffered large-scale disasters, causing a significant loss of lives, property damage, and adverse social and economic impact. Those who are most vulnerable during and in the immediate aftermath of disaster crises are the elderly. Therefore, it is imperative to identify them and determine their specific needs in order to support them. Although several Social Vulnerability Indexes (SVIs) have been developed to assess different types of disaster vulnerability across geographic and population levels, few have been tailored to the older population. Building on the research of Gusmano et al., this study modifies and uses an SVI specifically designed to assess the vulnerability of older populations to emergencies and disasters across seven domains, namely, population size, institutionalization, poverty, living alone, disability, communication obstacles, and access to primary care. Moreover, it is acknowledged that availability of data largely depends on the local context and is always a barrier to production of indices across countries. The present study offers suggestions on how modifications can be made for local adaptation such that the SVI can be applied in different cities and localities. The SVI used in this study provides information to stakeholders in emergency preparedness, not only about natural disasters but also about health hazards and emergencies, which few existing SVI address.
authors.affiliation: The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, phchau@graduate.hku.hk.
authors.forename: Pui Hing
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Chau
authors.forename: Michael K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Gusmano
authors.forename: Joanna O Y
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Sai Hei
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Cheung
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Woo
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D004190:Disasters; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D009519:New York City; D035862:Vulnerable Populations / Q000706:statistics & numerical data