Investigating sanandaj university students' knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding preparation for earthquake in 2013-2014

Earthquake is one of the most important natural disasters in Iran. The belt of this destructive disaster is almost widespread all over the country. The most important point to be made on such disasters and their consequences is that these disasters do not involve unfavorable consequences per se. What makes them disastrous is lack of preparation to deal with them and preventing their unfavorable effects on health, economic, and environmental elements. Since there has been no research on earthquake in university students' views, measuring and teaching this group of the society who will take the future of the country in different sections seem to be highly important. Therefore, the present study was aimed at investigating university students' knowledge, attitude, and practice of preparation for earthquake in Sanandaj, one of the Iran's cities located on earthquake belt.The present research was a descriptive-analytic cross-sectional study. Data collection was carried out through a valid questionnaire whose validity and reliability were confirmed using Delphi technique in three phases. Sampling was randomly conducted through some phases. Collected data were analyzed through SPSS 19.0.Participants included 400 students from Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences (200 students) and Islamic Azad University of Sanandaj (200 students). They were composed of 46.1% males and 53.9% females and aged 18-32 with a mean age of 21.75±91.1. Media were the mostly utilized sources to collect information on natural disasters like earthquake (47.6%). 51.1% of the participants had experienced slight earthquakes. In studied students' view, 56.2% of houses in their place of residence were not resistant against earthquake. 62.9% of the students believed that the likelihood of devastating earthquake in their place of residence was high. Analytic results of the study showed that 18.4% of the students had good knowledge, 38.4% had average knowledge, and 46.8% had low knowledge. Regarding their attitude, 49.23% of them had good attitude, 19.21% had average attitude, and 26.7% had bad attitude. Regarding their practice, 62.3% of them had low practice for earthquake, 38.8% had average practice, and 23.5% had good and appropriate practice. According to the results of the present study, students' knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding preparation for earthquake are not suitable. In this regard, interventional especially educational undertakings need to be figured out. There was a significant statistical relation between knowledge, attitude, and practice scores, such that students with higher knowledge, had better attitude and appropriate practice. Efficient management of health in disasters depends on predicting and identifying problems caused by the disaster and providing necessary facilities in appropriate place and time. Therefore, authorities need to take actions that enhance people's knowledge, change their attitude, and affect their practice in the face of this devastating disaster