Evaluation of university students' preparedness for emergency and disasters

Disasters that negatively affect the health of the society in large numbers and disrupt the living order of the society are of great importance for public health. Turkey is a country at risk of earthquakes, and many other disasters such as landslides and floods are frequently observed.Our study aimed to evaluate the individual preparedness of university students in our city for emergencies/disasters and the factors affecting them. The population of this analytical cross-sectional research is; It consists of undergraduate students from all faculties affiliated with Fırat University. With the stratified random sampling method, the faculties at Fırat University were grouped as health, science, social sciences and educational sciences, and 786 students were included in the sample at the rate of a random faculty from each group, with proportional selection according to gender and grades. For data collection, a survey form developed by the researchers by reviewing the literature and the General Disaster Preparedness Belief Scale were used. The survey was administered by the researchers through a face-to-face interview. The data were recorded in the statistical package program, and Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis, Chi-square tests were used in statistical analyses. The average age of the participants is 21.17±2.88 years and %52.9 are male. %78.9 of the students have experienced a disaster before, and the most common disaster experienced by the students was earthquake (%76.6). Women who perceive their economic situation as good/medium, whose parents are alive, who perceive their general health as good, who perceive their school success as good, who have experienced disasters, who have an emergency/disaster kit, who have a disaster/emergency plan where they live, who the general scale scores of students who knew the disaster risk of the region, considered themselves prepared for possible disasters, received disaster-related training, wanted to receive disaster training, and participated in disaster drills were found to be statistically significantly higher. In conclusion; In disasters, starting from the first seconds, all individuals are alone with themselves; a person's readiness for a disaster and his knowledge on the subject will protect him from the harmful effects of the disaster. Disaster training, which is of great importance in protection from disasters, helps the society to have information about disasters, dangers, risks, reliable information sources, the environment in which they live and disasters in this environment, what to do before, during and after disasters, institutions and organizations taking part in disasters, and thus to protect against disasters. It helps them be more prepared. Keywords: Disaster, Emergency, Individual disaster preparedness, University students.