PubMed Health⌕ Search

SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Natural Disaster”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 775 records · Page 43Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Mental distress and recovery in a high-risk bereavement sample three years after untimely death.

Recovery from postdisaster bereavement was the primary concern of this longitudinal study: would levels of mental distress and recovery reported 1 year following a natural disaster be better predictors of mental distress and recovery reported 3 years postdisaster than demographic variables, concurrent life stress, and mediating factors? The 119 bereaved and control participants studied in 1981, one year following the 1980 volcanic eruption of Mount Saint Helens, were recontacted in 1983; of these, 85 consented to follow-up. The 1983 data collection consisted of identical measurement tools and procedures used in 1981. Three regression analyses addressed prediction of mental distress and recovery. The first two analyses compared disaster-bereaved and nondisaster-loss controls; the third pertained only to the bereaved. For the bereaved/control comparisons, 1981 levels of mental distress, age, sex, education, and 1983 levels of negative life stress, self-efficacy, and social support were predictors of the dependent variable, mental distress. For the bereaved group, 1981 mental distress and 1983 self-efficacy scores were the only significant predictors of 1983 mental distress. In the control group, two additional variables, sex and concurrent negative life stress, were also significant predictors of 1983 mental distress. In the final regression analysis, predictors of self-rated recovery, importance of the deceased person rated by the bereaved 1 year postdisaster, and beliefs of preventability of death reported 3 years postdisaster were predictors of 1983 recovery. Only importance of the deceased person was a significant predictor in the latter analysis. Results suggest that recovery is a lengthy process and that much remains to be learned about influencing factors.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1987

Prevention and treatment of lightning injuries.

Lightning ranks first among natural disasters in terms of fatalities and property damage each year. If fortunate enough to survive, the victim of a lightning or electrical accident often presents with numerous complicated clinical manifestations. The astute nurse practitioner will be challenged to identify the immediate signs and symptoms of possible system disruption, and to institute the follow-up management necessary to prevent further complications. This article explores the nurse practitioner's role in the physical assessment of the client and the protocol for management and follow-up care. Case studies are presented to illustrate the various multisystem findings of clients struck either directly or indirectly by lightning. Environmental precautions to decrease the likelihood of lightning's harmful effects are also discussed. It is easier to prevent a lightning and/or electrical accident than to treat the victim.

Adult↗
PubMed2025

A decentralized future for the open-science databases.

The continuous and reliable open access to curated biological data repositories is indispensable for accelerating rigorous scientific inquiry and fostering reproducible research outcomes. However, the current paradigm, which relies heavily on centralized infrastructure for the storage and distribution of foundational biomedical datasets, inherently introduces significant vulnerabilities. This centralized model is susceptible to single points of failure, including cyberattacks, technical malfunctions, natural disasters, and even political or funding uncertainties. Such disruptions can lead to widespread data unavailability, data loss, integrity compromises, and substantial delays in critical research, ultimately impeding scientific progress. The downstream effect of such interruptions can be the widespread paralysis of diverse research activities, including computational, clinical, molecular, and climate studies. This scenario vividly illustrates the inherent dangers of consolidating essential scientific resources within a single geopolitical or institutional locus. As data generation is accelerating and the global landscape continues to fluctuate, the sustainability of centralized models must be critically re-evaluated. A shift toward federated and decentralized architectures may offer a robust and forward-looking approach to enhancing the resilience of scientific data infrastructures by reducing exposure to governance instability, infrastructural fragility, and funding volatility, while also promoting equity and global accessibility. Inspired by established models such as ELIXIR's federated infrastructure and the policy and funding frameworks developed by CODATA and the Global Biodata Coalition (GBC), emerging Decentralized Science (DeSci) initiatives can contribute to building more resilient, fair, and incentive-aligned data ecosystems. The future of open science depends on integrating these complementary approaches to establish a globally distributed, economically sustainable, and institutionally robust infrastructure that safeguards scientific data as a public good, further ensuring continued accessibility, interoperability, and preservation for generations to come. Here, we examine the structural limitations of centralized repositories, evaluate federated and decentralized models, and propose a hybrid framework for resilient, fair, and sustainable scientific data stewardship.

data accessibility↗
PubMed1995

Organizational transition: managing through rough waters.

Managing during restructuring is a little like managing during a tidal wave or an earthquake. The environment is turbulent, unpredictable, often personally threatening, and laden with long term consequences. As in a natural disaster, you must plan ahead, keep the short term in focus, and the long term in perspective.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1993

Juror stress: identification and intervention.

The impact of stressful life events has been studied extensively in the psychiatric literature. Crisis debriefing techniques have been shown to be effective in decreasing psychiatric morbidity following exposure to these stressful situations. Stress reactions and crisis debriefing have been reported in many groups including combat veterans, survivors of natural disasters and accidents, victims of violence, and law enforcement and emergency personnel who respond to such events. One group that has not been studied extensively is jurors who are exposed to potentially disturbing material introduced as evidence in trials. Stress reactions in jurors and the value of debriefing of juries have been described by us in an earlier work. This paper describes debriefing sessions with three juries exposed to emotionally distressing material during murder trials. In comparing our experiences with these sets of jurors a number of common reactions were identified. These are discussed and a model for jury debriefing is presented.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1994

Critical incident stress debriefings for crisis management in post-traumatic stress disorders.

Critical incident stress debriefings (CISDs) are a form of crisis management for rescuers such as police officers, fire-fighters and others involved in rescue efforts during natural disasters. This article describes a qualitative evaluation study of one police department's CISD implementation. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten police officers involved in violent incidents. Results indicated that CISD was perceived as helpful by the officers in alleviating the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder they experienced after the violent incidents.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Lessons from the Georgia floods.

In July 1994, tropical storm Alberto brought heavy rains to parts of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. In South Georgia, rivers rose 44 feet above flood stage, muddy water covered 10,000 square miles, and 31 lives were lost. In implementing the Health and Medical Services portion of the FEMA Federal Response Plan, the Public Health Service learned lessons from this experience that can be applied to planning for other natural disasters. Continuous reassessment to assure the best utilization of resources in rapidly changing conditions, cross-training in the content of emergency plans at all levels, and on-going face-to-face liaison among response managers will improve response efforts. Populations with special medical needs must become part of any response design. The effects that any response activity may have on the community as a whole should be carefully considered before action is taken.

Disaster Planning↗
PubMed1996

[Hospital admissions for respiratory diseases in the aftermath of the great Hanshin earthquake].

A questionnaire was sent to 30 hospitals and medical institutes in and around the Hanshin district, where the Great Hanshin Earthquake, occurred on January 17th, 1995. The questions concerned patients who were admitted from the day of the earthquake until 10 weeks later. Answers were obtained from 18 of the 30 facilities and the total number of patients admitted with respiratory diseases was 148. Patients with lobar pneumonia or focal pneumonia, or both, accounted for 58.8% of the total, and those with upper respiratory tract infection made up 19.6%. Patients with acute-on-chronic respiratory failure made up 6.8% of the total, as did those with exacerbation of bronchial asthma. Some patients had underlying respiratory diseases, which included bronchial asthma, sequelae of tuberculosis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and many patients were more than 65 years old. The week with the highest number of admissions was the second week after the earthquake, and 69.6% of the patients were admitted within the first 3 weeks. At time of admission, most patients had been living in Temporary shelters, or with relatives of friends. Most patients (68.9%) were discharged after their conditions had improved, but 9.5% died. All but one of those who died were more than 65 years old. These data indicate that in most cases admission to the hospital resulted not from the earthquake itself but from secondary factors such as unsatisfactory facilities in temporary shelters, psychological stress, the common cold, influenza, overwork, and the disruption of medical services. These data should be useful in establishing medical and political strategies to reduce admissions of patients with respiratory diseases after natural disasters.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Measuring state expenditures for core public health functions.

In 1993, the U.S. Public Health Service, with the assistance of the Public Health Foundation (PHF), launched a pilot study to develop state and national expenditure estimates for the core functions of public health. The core public health functions selected for the data collection effort were (1) health-related data, surveillance, and outcomes monitoring; (2) investigation and control of diseases, injuries, and response to natural disasters; (3) immunizations, family planning, and STD and TB clinical services; (4) protection of environment, housing, food, water, and the workplace; (5) laboratory services; (6) public information and education and community mobilization; (7) targeted outreach and linkage to personal services; (8) accountability/quality assurance; (9) training and education; and (10) leadership, planning, policy development, and administration. State health officials from Connecticut, Iowa, Missouri, Oregon, and Rhode Island helped develop a methodology and a set of guidelines for estimating expenditures on core functions and used this methodology to report expenditure data. Three additional states--Illinois, New York, and Texas--joined in a second phase of the pilot study, one that included collecting data on personal health services and total agency expenditure data. The eight states' combined per capita core function expenditures were $44 in fiscal year (FY) 1993. This included expenditures by state and local public health agencies and state substance abuse, mental health, and environmental health agencies. Expenditures for core public health functions accounted for 27% of these agencies' total expenditures. The largest core function expenditure accounting for approximately 30% of the total was for the protection of environment, housing, food, water, and the workplace. Extrapolating the eight states' expenditure estimates to the national level, spending for core public health functions in FY 1993 totaled $11.4 billion, or 1.3% of total U.S. health spending. The pilot project demonstrates that with appropriate guidance, including an estimating methodology and uniform definitions, categorical program data can be reported by function. The results of the data collection effort also demonstrate the potential utility of examining expenditures by core functions for state planning and policy making. The methodology allows states to distinguish core functions from other responsibilities, providing states with quantified information useful for reform efforts.

Data Collection↗
PubMed1996

Military medicine in operations other than war. Part II: Humanitarian relief missions for Naval Reserve fleet hospitals.

The U.S. military has a long tradition of providing emergency humanitarian assistance to civilian populations overwhelmed by natural disasters or civil strife. Military medicine is designed primarily to provide operational support for combat-oriented missions. The humanitarian relief mission requires different doctrine, configuration, supplies, and training for proper response. The Naval Reserve Fleet Hospital can be used as a crisis-response asset tasked for this specific mission to lessen the negative impact on active duty military operations and medical treatment facilities.

Hospitals, Military↗
PubMed1996

Exploring the determinants of support provision: provider characteristics, personal networks, community contexts, and support following life events.

To explore the determinants of support provision in the natural disaster context, we followed House (1981) and developed a model that specifies how characteristics of the providers, their personal networks, and the community contexts in which they live facilitate or impede their ability to provide support. All three sets of factors affected support provision during Hurricane Andrew, but the pattern of effects differs for the preparation and short-term recovery phases of the hurricane. Age, income, network density, and local economic conditions had significant effects on support provision in the preparation phase. Income did not have a significant effect on short-term recovery support, but religion, house damage, the size and diversity dimensions of network structure, and the local bonds and sentiments dimensions of community attachment did. After comparing the explanatory power of our model in the two phases, we conclude by investigating the implications of this test for understanding the determinants of support provision more generally.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Impact of Hurricane Luis on the health services of Antigua and Barbuda.

Antigua and Barbuda, located in the Caribbean, was one of the countries most affected by Hurricane Luis in 1995. Electricity, water supply and health facilities were disrupted for several weeks. Inadequate criteria at the design stages, unsound structural design, and lack of maintenance of building components, are some of the reasons that damage was so severe. The main hospitals and 6 health facilities were destroyed and flooded and most of the medical staff had to cope with their own damaged houses. Although the knowledge and materials are available to reduce the losses caused by hurricanes, building codes are not reinforced by laws and preventive maintenance to protect health care facilities from natural hazard damage is not usually budgeted for. The additional cost of making a single or two-storey health facility almost invulnerable to future catastrophe in a hurricane is only 2% in initial capital cost and becomes negligible when spread over the life of a building. The effort of UN International Decade for Natural Disasters (IDNDR) directed towards disaster mitigation should be increased over the remainder of the decade to ensure that standards are respected and building codes are mandatory.

Antigua and Barbuda↗
PubMed1997

Status of public health--Democratic People's Republic of Korea, April 1997.

During 1995 and 1996, severe flooding in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (i.e., North Korea (DPRK) (1990 population: 22 million)) (Figure 1) caused 186 deaths, dislocated approximately 550,000 persons from their homes, and caused damage to an estimated 1.2 million metric tons of crops (12% of total production). In combination with systemic economic problems in DPRK, these natural disasters have been associated with reports of a severe, ongoing food shortage and increased risks to public health. To assist in targeting humanitarian aid, in April 1997, the U.S. Agency for International Development's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance requested CDC to conduct an onsite assessment of the public health status and needs of the DPRK. This report summarizes findings of the assessment, which indicate a recent substantial decline in the health and nutritional status in DPRK.

Disasters↗
PubMed1997

Health dilemmas at the borders--a global challenge.

The health and safety of border crossers and people who live in border areas are widely neglected. The remoteness of many communities living near international borders makes it difficult to provide them with services, and if a country's border controls are inadequate there is an increased risk from communicable diseases for its entire population. Substance abuse and associated behavioural problems can be more common in border regions for the same reason. Armed conflicts, economic pressures and natural disasters can precipitate the movement of refugees across borders and the disruption of local infrastructures. Environmental hazards tend to be heightened in border regions because of the dumping of waste, the pollution of the atmosphere by slow-moving vehicles, and the contamination of water by sewage. Furthermore, dangers may arise because of unsafe implementation of trade agreements and the movement of uregulated materials. There is an urgent need for health education and the promotion of family and individual health care in many border regions. A global initiative on health and safety at international borders is clearly needed. It should include needs assessment, new policies and action programmes.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Climate change, human health, and sustainable development.

Human-induced climate change threatens ecosystems and human health on a global scale. In order to withstand the worldwide threats to ecosystems, the concept of sustainable development was introduced during the 1980s. Since then, this concept has been widely applied to guide and focus policy-making. The present article reviews the health consequences of human-induced climate change on sustainable development, particularly the potential impact of such change of food supply, natural disasters, infectious diseases, ecosystems, and sea level rise. Discussed is an integrated model containing the key indicators of sustainable development. The relevance of climate change, human health, and sustainable development for international climate change policy is also examined.

Climate↗
PubMed1998

Infectious disease surveillance in China.

A national system of infectious disease surveillance was established in 1959 in China. Now it consists of three subunits, namely, national disease reporting system (NDRS), nationwide disease surveillance points (DSPs), and surveillance network for specific infectious diseases. There are 35 notifiable infectious diseases, which are divided into Classes A, B, and C. The functions of the surveillance include explaining the natural history of infectious diseases, describing the distribution of case occurrence, triggering disease-control effort, monitoring epidemic of infectious diseases during natural disasters, predicting and controlling epidemics and providing the base of policy adjustment.

China↗