Association of Interest in Disasters with an Understanding of Disaster Preparedness in Pregnant Women and Women with Infants

Background and Aim Pregnant women need to prepare for a disaster and have knowledge of physiological changes after a disaster in order to protect not only themselves but also their fetus.The purpose of this study was to examine the awareness of the need for disaster preparedness, interest in disasters, actual preparedness for a disaster and an understanding of physiological conditions after a disaster in pregnant and postpartum women and infants and to clarify the associations among awareness, interest, understanding and actual preparedness.Subjects and Methods This study was conducted between August and November in 2016.The questionnaire used in this study included questions on awareness, interest, preparedness and an understanding of physiological conditions in pregnant and postpartum women and infants after a disaster as well as background characteristics.We distributed the questionnaires to 500 pregnant women and women with infants.The Ethics Committee of Tokushima University Hospital approved the study. ResultsThe response rate was 94.4% (472/500).The proportion of women who are aware of the need for preparedness for a disaster was 74.2% and the proportion of women with an interest in disasters was 71.2%, but the proportion of women who actually prepared for a disaster was only 46.3%.Having an interest in disasters was significantly associated with actual disaster preparedness and with awareness of the need for disaster preparedness.The proportion of women who understood the physiological changes that can occur after a disaster in pregnant women, postpartum women and infants was 45.2%.Actual preparedness for a disaster but not having awareness and interest in disasters was significantly associated with an understanding of physiological conditions after a disaster in pregnant women and infants.