During the course of a five-year study of how unmet needs affect health outcomes of people with type 2 Diabetes that will be completed later this year, researchers from Washington University in St. Louis working closely with Louisiana Healthcare Connections discovered an additional need for support in creating a personal emergency preparedness plan.
With its sometimes-volatile weather, people in Louisiana are no strangers to the need for emergency preparedness. However, a new study, co-authored by Washington University researchers and two Louisiana Healthcare Connections team members recently published in Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, notes people with unmet social determinants of health are at a much greater risk of needing additional care and planning assistance to create a personal emergency preparedness plan prior to a disaster.
Darrell Broussard, lead data analyst, and Rachel Smith, senior manager of case management with Louisiana Healthcare Connections, have been working closely with Washington University in St. Louis on the study.
“Social determinants of health include those things like food insecurity or housing needs that supersede any health or emergency planning,” said Broussard. “Examining the data subsets, we were able to better understand the associations between social needs and the need for emergency preparedness assistance.”
This study found that while most emergency preparedness planning seeks to identify vulnerable population subgroups, focusing on chronic conditions alone may ignore other important characteristics such as location and poverty. Social needs were examined as correlates of anticipated needs and desire for assistance during an emergency.
The study concluded that identifying individuals with social needs, independent of their chronic disease status, will benefit emergency preparedness outreach efforts.