No abstract

Disaster preparedness initiatives are increasingly focused on building community resilience. Preparedness research has correspondingly shifted its attention to community-level attributes that can support a community’s capacity to respond to and recover from disasters. While research at the community level is integral to building resilience, it may not address the specific barriers and motivators to getting individuals prepared. In particular, people with disabilities are vulnerable to disasters, yet research suggests that they are less likely to engage in preparedness behaviors. Limited research has examined what factors influence their ability to prepare, with no studies examining both the individual and community characteristics that impact these behaviors. Multilevel modeling thus offers a novel contribution that can assess both levels of influence. Using Los Angeles County community survey data from the Public Health Response to Emergent Threats Survey and the Healthy Places Index, we examined how social cognitive and community factors influence the relationship between disability and preparedness. Results from hierarchical linear regression models found that participants with poor health and who possessed activity limitations engaged in fewer preparedness behaviors. Self-efficacy significantly mediated the relationship between self-rated health and disaster preparedness. Living in a community with greater advantages, particularly with more advantaged social and housing attributes, reduced the negative association between poor self-rated health and preparedness. This study highlights the importance of both individual and community factors in influencing people with disabilities to prepare. Policy and programming should therefore be two-fold, both targeting self-efficacy as a proximal influence on preparedness behaviors and also addressing upstream factors related to community advantage that can create opportunities to support behavioral change while bolstering overall community resilience.

Objective To examine HPV vaccine awareness and receptivity among adolescents and young adults in Senegal. Methods Participants from 6 high schools and 5 community centers across five regions of Senegal (n=2,286) completed a self-administered questionnaire in October and November 2014. The study assessed HPV awareness and receptivity toward receiving the HPV vaccine. Multivariable logistic regression explored statistically significant relationships between the predictor variables and both outcomes. Results 27% had heard of HPV. Among those who had heard of HPV (n=616), only 28% indicated willingness to vaccinate. Multivariable analysis showed that respondents from rural areas had 63% higher odds (95% CI: 1.24, 2.12) of having heard of HPV than those in urban areas. Respondents with fathers who had completed higher education 41% higher odds (95% CI: 1.04, 1.92) of being aware of HPV (p <0.05); however, every level of father’s education (as compared to no education at all) was negatively associated with willingness to vaccinate. Respondents who had previously spoken to a healthcare professional about the HPV vaccine had 80% higher odds (95% CI: 1.16, 2.81) of willingness to vaccinate than those who did not speak to a provider about the vaccine. Conclusions Health care providers and parents are important stakeholders in disseminating HPV vaccine information. Given the overall low levels of awareness, there is a great opportunity for public health communication efforts to craft health messaging and information in a way to maximize receptivity, outlining benefits and providing information on the minimal risks associated with the vaccine.

Mercury/gold amalgam and bismuth film electrodes (BiFEs) were used to make the first centimeterscale measurements of redox species in benthic pore waters of prairie pothole wetlands across a hydrologic gradient. Sulfide in pore waters increased across this system from negligible sulfide in hydrologically up-gradient recharge wetlands to thousands of micromolar in down-gradient discharge wetlands. Field measurements of sulfides using the BiFE were tested against an established colorimetric assay. Sulfide measured with the BiFE agreed well with colorimetric measurements but is not subject to analytical artifacts associated with methods needed to extract the pore waters. Use of Hg/Au and BiFE electrodes should allow for rapid in situ detection of redox active species, especially sulfide concentrations of >500 μM, in pore waters over seasonal to decadal time scales. Such measurements are needed to understand important biogeochemical and environmental processes such as carbon cycling and contaminant attenuation tied to sulfur dynamics in these important ecosystems.