title: Disaster Preparedness in Rural Families of Children With Special Health Care Needs.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to describe disaster preparedness strategies and behaviors among rural families who have children with special health care needs and to examine the effect of self-efficacy and response-efficacy on disaster preparedness.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data for this study were drawn from the baseline surveys of 287 rural families with children with special health care needs who were part of a randomized controlled trial examining the impact of an intervention on disaster preparedness. Distributions of child, parent, and family characteristics were examined by preparedness. Linear regression models were built to examine the impact of self-efficacy and response-efficacy on level of disaster preparedness.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Disaster preparedness (overall, emergency plan, discussion/practice, and supplies) was low (40.9-69.7%) among study families. Disaster preparedness was found to increase with each unit increase in the level of self-efficacy and family resilience sources across all 4 categories of preparedness.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Disaster preparedness among rural families with children with special health care needs is low, which is concerning because these children may have increased vulnerability to adverse outcomes compared to the general population. Results suggest that increasing the levels of self-efficacy and family resilience sources may increase disaster preparedness.
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Occupational and Environmental Health and Injury Prevention Research Center,University of Iowa,Iowa City,Iowa.
authors.forename: Cara J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Hamann
authors.affiliation: 2Department of Epidemiology and Injury Prevention Research Center,The University of Iowa,Iowa City,Iowa.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mello
authors.affiliation: 3Department of Biostatistics and Injury Prevention Research Center,University of Iowa,Iowa City,Iowa.
authors.forename: Hongqian
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: 4Center for Injury Research and Policy,Nationwide Children's Hospital,Columbus,Ohio.
authors.forename: Jingzhen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: 5Division of Services for Children with Special Healthcare Needs,Maternal and Child Health Bureau,Health Resources and Services Administration,Rockville,Maryland.
authors.forename: Debra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Waldron
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Occupational and Environmental Health and Injury Prevention Research Center,University of Iowa,Iowa City,Iowa.
authors.forename: Marizen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ramirez
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002959:Civil Defense / Q000592:standards*; D019988:Children with Disabilities; D004189:Disaster Planning / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012424:Rural Population; D020377:Self Efficacy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: children; disasters; preparedness; rural; special needs