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Background Resilience is vital for facing natural disasters and public health challenges. Despite the significance of resilience-building activities, there is a scarcity of locally-tailored planning and response strategies, leaving communities incapable of addressing the unique challenges posed by natural disasters and public health crises. This study aims to explore how the “One Community at a Time” approach enhances community resilience in facing natural hazards and public health challenges. Methods A systematic review was conducted over journal articles published from January 2001 to April 2023 through PRISMA approach. Multiple databases such as Web of Science and Scopus were thoroughly searched. We used independent screening by two researchers and painstaking data extraction using standardized forms. This approach was adopted to assure the reliability, validity, and precision of our study selection and analysis. The included studies’ quality was evaluated by the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Results In the evaluation, 35 studies were deemed eligible for inclusion and underwent in-depth examination. Several major components of “One Community at a Time” have been identified, including social capital and networks, local knowledge and learning, effective governance and leadership, preparedness and response capacity, and adaptive infrastructure and resources. This framework highlights the significance of individualized approaches to resilience-building initiatives, recognizing that each community has specific strengths, needs, and challenges. Conclusion Relevant stakeholders can adapt suitable resilient strategies to help prepare and recover from natural hazards and public health challenges. By adopting a localized strategy, stakeholders can collaborate to develop a culture of readiness and resilience, ultimately leading to more sustainable and resilient communities. This framework advises community-based groups, local government, and other stakeholders on prioritizing partnerships, preparedness planning, community participation, and leadership as essential components of creating and maintaining resilience. “One Community at a Time” framework offers practical guidance for community-based organizations, local government, and other stakeholders to prioritize partnerships, preparedness planning, community participation, and leadership as essential components of creating and sustaining resilience.

Disaster preparedness in schools is critical for the health and well-being of students and staff. To enhance disaster preparedness, awareness of disaster prevention should be raised among teachers. The aim of the current study was to assess disaster prevention awareness among teachers and to clarify the relationship between disaster prevention awareness and concern regarding disaster preparedness. Teachers from special needs schools, for which disaster preparedness is particularly important, were selected. Study questionnaires were sent to 1310 schools for children with special health care needs across 47 Japanese prefectures. Five-hundred-and-thirty-one complete responses were obtained. The disaster preparedness in the schools was insufficient. Teachers were concerned about child management, life saving, life maintenance, evacuation shelter management, and school management. There was a positive correlation between disaster prevention awareness and concern about disaster (r = 0.217, p-value = 0.000). The disaster awareness scale items “A sense of crisis about disaster” and “Anxiety” were positively correlated with concern about disaster, whereas “Imagining the disaster situation” was negatively correlated with concern about disaster. The current study analyzed the relationship between disaster prevention awareness and concern regarding disaster preparedness, which is relevant for the practice and indicates the importance of imagination strengthening.

After the Great East Japan Earthquake and the subsequent Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident in 2011, there was a strong demand to promote disaster preparedness approaches and health checkups for the prevention of lifestyle diseases. This study examined the yearly change in the percentage of those who prepared for disasters and who utilized health checkups in Fukushima Prefecture, and identified the factors governing disaster preparedness and utilization of health checkups. We used the public opinion survey from 2011 to 2015 (n = 677–779 each year) on prefectural policies that is conducted every year by the Fukushima Prefecture government Public Consultation Unit. We found that the percentage of those who prepare for disasters decreased, while that for health checkups did not significantly change. With regard to disaster preparedness, experiences of disaster enhance disaster preparedness, while bonds with other local people help to maintain preparedness. For health checkups, familiarity with the welfare service was the most important factor governing such consultations. The findings suggest that social capital should be promoted in order to improve disaster preparedness. The findings also suggest that residents’ accessibility to medical and welfare services is also important in promoting the utilization of health checkups.

This study aims to analyse the knowledge and atitude of disaster preparedness student who live around the Mount Merapi area in the face of natural disaster of volcanic eruptions. The research method used descriptive reseaerch using 56 students as respondents. The instruments of this study used tests and quesionnaires. Data analysisi techniques were performed using quantitatif percentages. The results showed that students in the area around Mount Merapi had good knowledge about knowing danger signs of a volcano eruption by 29% and had a disaster preparedness preparedness category of 59%. This research can be used as a development foundation to help reduce the risk of volcanic eruptions.

ObjectiveMedical students and general practitioners have a vital role in disasters both in the “preparedness and mitigation” and “response and recovery” phases. To prepare students management of disasters as health professionals, the level of disaster preparedness perceptions of the students should be evaluated. So, the undergraduate medical curriculum can be structured to ensure the readiness of the students for disaster. The aim of the study was to determine the level of disaster preparedness perception of medical students.MethodsThis descriptive study was conducted in the Faculty of Medicine of a state university. The population of the study consisted of students studying in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades of the medical faculty which had a training on disaster module in the fifth year. The study was completed with the participation of 288 students. In the data collection process, “personal information form” and the “disaster preparedness perception scale of personnel working in prehospital emergency health services” were used.ResultsIt was found that exposure to disasters, presence of individuals exposed to disasters in the family and environment, participation in disaster exercises, receiving disaster training, willingness to volunteer in disasters, the level of participants' perception of themselves as prepared for disasters, the level of perception of the disaster risk of the region of residence, were effective on the mean total score of the scale.ConclusionDisaster preparedness perception can be seen as a first step toward competency in disaster management in medical students. Conducting simulation-based well-structured training modules is recommended to improve the disaster preparedness perceptions of the students. Further studies are needed to evaluate the effect of simulation-based training in disaster management.

Schools may serve as shelters after a disaster in many countries, including Japan. However, teachers are unaware of the need to balance education and shelter management responsibilities under such circumstances. To promote teachers’ awareness of the post-disaster school situation, this study developed an introductory training for aspiring teachers and investigated its effectiveness. A total of 143 students aspiring to become teachers participated in this simulative training and answered pre- and post-intervention questionnaires. The participants’ vocabulary and word usage were also evaluated. The mean participant scores for the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains increased significantly after the training compared with the pre-training scores. The training was also associated with the aggregation of word usage, which may facilitate communication with representatives of multiple occupations. The findings indicate that a developed training may help aspiring teachers better understand their responsibilities after a disaster and prepare them for such situations.

The successful social implementation of a rainwater-harvesting tank can save millions of people in coastal Bangladesh from drinking saline water and health risks. However, previous studies have shown that several potentially effective, innovative disaster-preventive technologies failed to disseminate even after proactive promotional campaigns. People at risk worry about adopting innovative preventive measures because of the uncertainties attached to the new technology, such as its merits, cost, maintenance, durability, social acceptance, etc. Instead of mass media, people rely on social networks to obtain trusted, verified, and personal information. Hearing plays an important role, through which information diffuses from pioneer adopters to late adopters or potential adopters across settlements, starting from the village to district to region. Unlike conventional studies, limited to understanding the regional dimension of diffusion, this study investigated how the information diffuses from pioneer adopters to potential adopters at both the macro-level (e.g., districts, subdistricts, and towns) and micro-level (e.g., villages and neighborhoods). This study was based on field surveys through interviewing 196 innovative rainwater-tank adopters from 30 villages and communities in two subdistricts in coastal Bangladesh. We found that the macro-level pioneer adopters played a critical role in diffusing awareness knowledge, through which people in new villages, neighborhoods, and sub-districts, where mass media and change agents failed to reach, became aware of the existence of the innovative measure. However, macro-adapters alone failed to disseminate the innovation further, as the local communities intend to pay to heed the suggestions and experiences of the local (micro) pioneer adopters to understand the principle and how-to knowledge of the innovation. Information is diffused in the villages and neighborhoods through local pioneer adopters through direct, intimate personal contacts.

Given projections of future climate-related disasters, understanding the conditions that facilitate disaster preparedness is critical to achieving sustainable development. Here, we studied communities within the Wet Tropics bioregion, Australia to explore whether people’s perceived preparedness for a future cyclone relates to their: (1) perceived individual adaptive capacity (in terms of flexibility and capacity to plan and learn); and (2) structural and cognitive social capital. We found that people’s perceived cyclone preparedness was only related to their perceived individual flexibility in the face of change. Given that people’s perceived cyclone preparedness was related to individualistic factors, it is plausible that individualism-collectivism orientations influence people’s perceptions at an individual level. These results suggest that in the Wet Tropics region, enhancing people’s psychological flexibility may be an important step when preparing for future cyclones. Our study highlights the need to tailor disaster preparedness initiatives to the region in question, and thus our results may inform disaster risk management and sustainable development policies.

In this research, a visiting class on disaster preparedness education for higher-grade elementary school students (10–11 years old) was conducted in Wakayama prefecture, which is exposed to Nankai Trough earthquakes, and in different parts of the three prefectures whose coasts were most affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake: Fukushima (Western inland), Miyagi (North side out of the tsunami inundation area and Northern inland), and Iwate (Medium inland). Group activities with game-like elements were conducted. To examine whether this initiative improves schoolchildren’s awareness of disaster-prevention, surveys were conducted before, immediately after, and one month after the classes. Results indicate differences in awareness depending on regional characteristics of the schoolchildren’s residential area. The data obtained at each school varied according to whether the school was in a region that had experienced disaster in the recent past, or if the school was in a region where there is a recognized risk of disaster in the future. Classes in regions with recent disaster experience showed increased awareness of threats and prevention after the disaster-prevention class; however, this effect was short-lived. Increased awareness lasted longer in those schools located in regions that had not suffered from disasters in the recent past, but that are predicted to experience a major disaster in the future. We therefore infer that the “previous history of disasters” defines the key difference between regions, even when the particular school concerned was located outside the afflicted area (the coastal zone in the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami) and so not directly affected. The afflicted area was limited to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake; regions experiencing no direct damage, even if they were near damaged regions, saw an increased awareness of the threat of disasters as a result of disaster-prevention classes. Students also saw a decrease in their own confidence regarding evacuation behavior, while their expressed dependence on their families for help in evacuation situations strengthened. However, such effects were temporary. In the future, it would be desirable to develop disaster-prevention programs that consider such regional characteristics.