TY - JOUR
T1 - Social capital and disaster preparedness among low income Mexican Americans in a disaster prone area
AU - Reininger, Belinda M.
AU - Rahbar, Mohammad H.
AU - Lee, Min Jae
AU - Chen, Zhongxue
AU - Alam, Sartaj R.
AU - Pope, Jennifer
AU - Adams, Barbara
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was financially supported by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), # 2008-027641 . We also acknowledge the support provided by the Biostatistics/Epidemiology/Research Design (BERD) component of the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS) for this project. CCTS is mainly funded by the NIH Centers for Translational Science Award (NIH CTSA) grant ( UL1 RR024148 ), awarded to the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 2006 by the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NCRR.
PY - 2013/4
Y1 - 2013/4
N2 - Examination of social capital and its relationship to disaster preparedness has grown in prominence partially due to world-wide need to effectively respond to terrorist attacks, viral epidemics, or natural disasters. Recent studies suggested that social capital may be related to a community's ability to plan for and respond to such disasters. Few studies, however, have examined social capital constructs among low income populations living in disaster prone areas and accounted for the influence of social capital at the individual and community level. We examined social capital as measured by perceived fairness, perceived civic trust, perceived reciprocity and group membership.We undertook a multistage random cluster survey in three coastal counties in Texas (U.S.) noted for their high levels of poverty. Individuals from 3088 households provided data on social capital, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, and self-reported level of preparedness for a hurricane. We used multivariable logistic regression to test potential associations between social capital measures and disaster preparedness.After adjusting for age, gender, marital status, ethnicity, education, employment, household income, acculturation, self-reported health, special needs persons in household, household size, and distance to the shore we found a higher prevalence of preparedness among individuals who reported the highest perception of fairness [AOR = 3.12, 95% CI: (1.86, 5.21)] compared to those individuals who reported lowest perceptions of fairness. We also found a higher prevalence of preparedness [AOR = 2.06; 95% CI: (1.17, 3.62)] among individuals who reported highest perceptions of trust compared to individuals who reported lowest perceptions of trust. Perceived reciprocity and group membership were not associated with preparedness.These results extend previous findings on social capital and disaster preparedness and further characterize social capital's presence among a low income population living in a hurricane prone area.
AB - Examination of social capital and its relationship to disaster preparedness has grown in prominence partially due to world-wide need to effectively respond to terrorist attacks, viral epidemics, or natural disasters. Recent studies suggested that social capital may be related to a community's ability to plan for and respond to such disasters. Few studies, however, have examined social capital constructs among low income populations living in disaster prone areas and accounted for the influence of social capital at the individual and community level. We examined social capital as measured by perceived fairness, perceived civic trust, perceived reciprocity and group membership.We undertook a multistage random cluster survey in three coastal counties in Texas (U.S.) noted for their high levels of poverty. Individuals from 3088 households provided data on social capital, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, and self-reported level of preparedness for a hurricane. We used multivariable logistic regression to test potential associations between social capital measures and disaster preparedness.After adjusting for age, gender, marital status, ethnicity, education, employment, household income, acculturation, self-reported health, special needs persons in household, household size, and distance to the shore we found a higher prevalence of preparedness among individuals who reported the highest perception of fairness [AOR = 3.12, 95% CI: (1.86, 5.21)] compared to those individuals who reported lowest perceptions of fairness. We also found a higher prevalence of preparedness [AOR = 2.06; 95% CI: (1.17, 3.62)] among individuals who reported highest perceptions of trust compared to individuals who reported lowest perceptions of trust. Perceived reciprocity and group membership were not associated with preparedness.These results extend previous findings on social capital and disaster preparedness and further characterize social capital's presence among a low income population living in a hurricane prone area.
KW - Disaster
KW - Fairness
KW - Low-income
KW - Mexican Americans
KW - Preparedness
KW - Social capital
KW - Trust
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U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.01.037
DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.01.037
M3 - Article
C2 - 23465204
AN - SCOPUS:84875384214
SN - 0277-9536
VL - 83
SP - 50
EP - 60
JO - Social Science and Medicine
JF - Social Science and Medicine
ER -