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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Post-disaster quality of life among older survivors five years after the Bam earthquake
— implications for recovery policy | | Author(s) | A Arkanan, M Mazaheri, M Vanrooyen |
| Journal title | Ageing and Society, vol 31, part 2, February 2011 |
| Pages | pp 179-196 |
| Source | http://www.journals.cambridge.org/aso |
| Keywords | Earthquakes ; Quality of life ; Evaluation ; Iran. |
| Annotation | Older people are among the most vulnerable in major disasters. In their aftermath, it is crucial to institute efforts that will maintain a high level of quality of life (QoL). This paper presents and evaluates QoL assessments of older survivors five years after the Bam earthquake in Iran. A cross-sectional analysis of 210 randomly-selected survivors was carried out in 2008 using a structured questionnaire. A comparison of the results with data on the general population showed that experiencing the earthquake may adversely affect psychological dimensions of QoL even five years later, but paradoxically the earthquake resulted in better social relationships in affected communities than in the general population. Lower QoL associated with female gender, higher age, living alone, severe earthquake-related injury, poor quality of living conditions, increased dependency in the activities of daily living, living in an urban area, and being temporarily housed. Suggests that recovery experts and donors should carry out long-term monitoring of health status and QoL in disaster-affected communities, with a focus on psychological wellbeing. (JL). |
| Accession Number | CPA-110421001 A |
| Classmark | RG5: F:59: 4C: 7FL |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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