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Abstract
Background: Public health emergency management incorporates community resilience and disaster preparedness. Enhanced community resilience and disaster response and recovery strengthen community capacities to deal with adverse events and public health emergency situations. There is limited evidence concerning community resilience, disaster preparedness, and public health emergency management among the community members in Swat, Pakistan.
Aim: To assess the relationship between community resilience, disaster preparedness, and public health emergency readiness among community members in Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional quantitative correlational study. 377 community members were selected by probabilistic sampling. Community members were assessed by a structured questionnaire that contained socio-demographic data, community resilience, and disaster preparedness and public health emergency readiness. Data were analyzed in SPSS version 26. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression were computed. A p-value less than 0.05 was deemed statistically significant.
Results: The study participants had an average level of community resilience (3.72 ± 0.59), disaster preparedness (3.54 ± 0.63), and public health emergency readiness (3.61 ± 0.56). There was a positive correlation among community resilience, disaster preparedness, and public health emergency readiness, with the strongest correlation being among disaster preparedness and public health emergency readiness. Community resilience (β = 0.356) and disaster preparedness (β = 0.487) were significant predictors of public health emergency readiness (p < 0.001).
Conclusion: The findings of the study revealed that community resilience and disaster preparedness improve public health emergency readiness. Community disaster readiness and resilience building can lead to an improved capacity of response to disasters in vulnerable communities.