ARE RESIDENTS OF SEATTLE READY FOR ‘THE BIG ONE? AN INTERVENTION STUDY TO CHANGE EARTHQUAKE PREPAREDNESS

Background: Community preparedness for natural hazards remains poor across cultures. In addition, evaluated
\nintervention studies in natural hazard preparedness are scarce and contain methodological problems. This study
\npresents results of an intervention study on earthquake preparedness conducted in Seattle, U.S.A. Methodology:
\nThis is a quasi-experimental, longitudinal, community intervention with a pretest-posttest design, focused on
\nimproving earthquake readiness at the household level. The sample included 157 adult residents of Seattle.
\nPreparedness measures were assessed at baseline, one week after the intervention, and at three and 12 months
\nafter the intervention. This involved both of the groups in a survey and an observation of preparedness levels in
\ntheir homes. The primary outcome measure was an observational tool of five preparedness items, which was
\nimplemented alongside a survey that measured psychological, social, demographic and self-reported
\npreparedness variables. In addition, the intervention group completed a six-hour workshop on earthquake
\npreparedness, divided over two days. The control group did not participate in the workshop. Results: The
\nintervention group significantly improved their earthquake preparedness levels compared to baseline and to
\ncontrols one week after the intervention. Nonetheless, the effect of the intervention faded at the 3-month followup,
\nwhere no significant differences in earthquake preparedness were observed in the intervention group
\ncompared to baseline. In fact, preparedness appeared to increase for controls at three months compared to
\nbaseline and to one week after the intervention, and although not reaching statistical significance, it exceeded the
\nintervention group’s preparedness levels. Anxiety and trust predicted earthquake preparedness for the control
\ngroup at three months. Discussion: Despite levels of earthquake preparedness improving significantly for the
\nintervention group right after the intervention, this effect disappeared at the 3 month follow-up, stressing the
\nneed for the field to develop measures to facilitate the maintenance of behaviour change over time. Interestingly,
\ncontrols continued to improve their levels of preparedness, suggesting that the home assessments themselves
\nmight have acted as an intervention that was sufficiently powerful to trigger behaviour change in controls.
\nContrary to the emphasis on self-efficacy and other cognitive variables in the literature concerning natural
\nhazard preparedness, these results suggest that emotions such as anxiety and trust might play a more important
\nrole in preparedness. Future preparedness interventions should put emotive factors centre stage in targeting
\npreparedness. The findings of this study have implications for national and international policies on the design
\nand delivery of community interventions to increase hazard preparedness in lay people.