title: Emergency and disaster preparedness for chronically ill patients: a review of recommendations.
abstract: Recent disasters, especially those in developed countries, have highlighted the importance of disaster preparedness measures for chronic diseases. A number of surviving patients experienced the exacerbation of a chronic illness, such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer, and chronic respiratory diseases, due to disaster-related stress, interruption of care, or both; for some patients, these exacerbations resulted in death. Here, we review reports from recent disasters in developed countries and summarize the recommendations for disaster preparedness of chronically ill patients. A considerable number of recommendations based on the lessons learned from recent disasters have been developed, and they provide practical and essential steps to prevent treatment interruption during and after a disaster. To improve preparedness efforts, we suggest that health care providers should be aware of the following three suggestions: 1) recommendations should be evidence-based; 2) recommendations should contain consistent messages; and 3) recommendations should be feasible.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tomio
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Policy and Technology Assessment, National Institute of Public Health, Wako, Japan.
authors.forename: Hajime
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sato
keywords: chronic illness; disaster; preparedness