The Effects of a Disaster Preparedness app on Community Knowledge and Intentional Behavior in Hurricane Risk Areas.

Abstract

With the advancement of technology, disaster preparedness related to hurricane hazards can be taught through an app. This study aimed to examine the effect of using an android-based disaster preparedness app on community knowledge and intentional behavior in hurricane risk areas. A quasi-experimental study was conducted from October to November, 2020 and a total of 80 respondents were recruited using cluster sampling. The treatment group was given the intervention in the form of the disaster preparedness app for 2 weeks. Meanwhile, the control group received home visits and conventional education about hurricane disasters twice throughout the same period. We then used a Wilcoxon Signed Rank test to analyze the pre-test and post-test and a Mann-Whitney U test to compare between treatment and control groups. After the implementation of the SiBen app, we found a statistically significant difference in knowledge between treatment and control groups (P < 0.003) and intentional behavior between treatment and control groups (P < 0.001). The findings indicate that the disaster preparedness app was an effective educational program able to improve the knowledge and intentional behavior among community members in a hurricane risk area.