KNOWLEDGE REGARDING EARTHQUAKE PREPAREDNESS AMONG THE PEOPLE OF BIRATNAGAR SUB-METROPOLIS OF EASTERN NEPAL

Methodology A cross sec onal study was conducted among the people residing in ward number 11 and 18 of Biratnagar st st sub-metropolis from 1 July to 1 October 2015. Wards were selected through simple random sampling and 110 par cipants were selected through convenient sampling. Each par cipant had completed an interviewer-administered ques onnaire. Descrip ve and inferen al sta s cs was applied for data analysis.


Objec ves
The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge regarding earthquake preparedness and to find out rela onship between the level of knowledge and with their selected socio-demographic variables.

Methodology
A cross sec onal study was conducted among the people residing in ward number 11 and 18 of Biratnagar st st sub-metropolis from 1 July to 1 October 2015.Wards were selected through simple random sampling and 110 par cipants were selected through convenient sampling.
Each par cipant had completed an interviewer-administered ques onnaire.Descrip ve and inferen al sta s cs was applied for data analysis.

Result
Among 110 par cipants, 51.8% had knowledge score between 51% to 75%, 24.6% had knowledge score below 50% and only 23.6% had knowledge score above 75%.This research showed that there was significant rela onship between knowledge and age, marital status, educa onal status, occupa on and monthly income.Par cipants from 20 to 39 year had more knowledge score than par cipants from 40 to 60 years.The higher the educa onal status; more was the knowledge score.Unmarried par cipants had more knowledge score than married par cipants and business holders had more knowledge score than other occupa on category.

INTRODUCTION
An earthquake is the percep ble shaking of the surface of the earth, which can be violent enough to destroy major buildings and kill thousands of people.and injured more than 23000.Earthquake preparedness is necessary ac on and strategy that is implemented before an earthquake happens and is done in order to prevent hazards 5 and casualty during an earthquake.Preparedness efforts also aim at ensuring that the resources necessary for responding effec vely in the event of a disaster are in place, and one should know how to use those resources.The ac vi es that are commonly associated with disaster preparedness include developing planning processes to ensure readiness; formula ng disaster plans; stockpiling resources necessary for effec ve response; and developing skills and competencies to ensure effec ve performance of 6 disaster-related tasks.However, people in both developing and developed countries do not u lize these ac ons.In a developed country like China knowledge regarding earthquake preparedness was only found to be 51% and level of educa on was found to be significantly associated 7 with it.In a study at Dhaka of Bangladesh, the majority of the 8 par cipants were not prepared for a major earthquake.This data along with other research study documents that people in developing countries are six mes more likely to die from 9 earthquake than the people in developed country.Nepal is a seismic prone country and the risk it faces from earthquakes are very high.Past records have shown that Nepal can expect two earthquakes of 7.5-8 Richter scale every forty years and one earthquake of magnitude of 8+ Richter scale every eighty 4 years.The preparedness level of Kathmandu ci zen (n=430) was only found to be 50.3%although 92.6% of the par cipants had expressed their concern regarding earthquake 9 preparedness.A posi ve correla on between earthquake knowledge and earthquake prepara on indicated that par cipants with more earthquake preparedness knowledge 10 were more likely to be prepared for earthquake.Considering the knowledge and negligence about earthquake preparedness as a key factor to prevent the hazards and casual es by earthquake next me and to contribute something towards up-li men of this worse condi on of country, researchers were interested in study related to knowledge regarding earthquake preparedness.The objec ves of the study were to assess the knowledge about earthquake preparedness among the people of selected ward of Biratnagar and to find out the rela onship between the knowledge score and with their selected sociodemographic variables.Table 2 shows there was sta s cally significant rela onship between knowledge and age, marital status, educa onal status, occupa on and monthly income where as there was no sta s cally significant rela onship between knowledge and sex, ethnicity, religion, family type and home ownership.Age group 20-39 had more knowledge score than other age group and par cipants had more knowledge score than married par cipant.The more the educa onal level, higher was the knowledge score where as knowledge score was seen more among the business holder than other occupa onal category.

DISCUSSION
This research finding revealed that the mean knowledge percentage of the par cipants was 64.77%.

CONCLUSION
The findings of this study revealed that people residing in Biratnagar sub-metropolis didn't have sa sfactory knowledge scores regarding earthquake preparedness.
Educa onal status was one of the major factor associated to increase the knowledge regarding earthquake preparedness.

RECOMMENDATION
To mi gate the damage from future earthquakes, it will be important to increase the people's educa onal status as well as their knowledge about earthquake preparedness.Interven on targeted to increase the knowledge regarding regarding earthquake preparedness is recommended.

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
This study could not be generalised in large popula on due to small sample size.

A
community based cross sec onal study was conducted among 110 par cipants residing in ward number 11 and 18 of Biratnagar sub-metropolis of Morang District in Eastern st stNepal from 1 July to 1 October 2015.Simple random sampling technique using lo ery method without replacement was used to select the wards, and par cipants were selected using non-probability convenience sampling method.Sample size was calculated by using the formula [N= z²p 6(1-p)/ d²], prevalence rate of (51%) was used for this study at 95% confidence interval and 10% degree of precision.Sample size was divided equally among the two wards.Par cipants over the age of 20 years and both gender and only one par cipant from each family were included in the study.Par cipants who were seriously ill during the data collec on period were excluded from the study.Ethical approval was taken from concerned authority of Nobel Medical College and Teaching Hospital, Biratnagar.The permission to conduct research was also taken from the local ward office.The confiden ality was maintained by coding the par cipants name in the ques onnaire, without disclosing the par cipants informa on to others.Informed consent was taken from par cipants prior to data collec on.Newly formed interviewer administered ques onnaire was used and its validity and reliability was tested.Pretes ng of these ques onnaires was done in 10% of sample in ward number 10 and these data were not included in final study.Ques onnaire was categorised into 2 parts: Socio-demographic informa on (10 ques ons) and knowledge based structured ques onnaire regarding earthquake, earthquake preparedness, property protec on preparedness during earthquake and life protec on preparedness during earthquake (20 ques ons in total).Each correct answer was scored as one and a wrong answer scored as zero.The maximum score was 20.The score of knowledge was converted into percentage and categorised into below 50%, 51% to 75% and 75% above.Collected data was entered in Microso Excel and analysed by SPSS version 17.Data was presented by using both descrip ve and inferen al sta s cs (t test and one way ANOVA test).The P value was considered significiant at 95% confidence interval.Pokharel A et al 202 ISSN: 2542-2758 (Print) 2542-2804 (Online) Birat Journal of Health SciencesRESULT

Table 1 : Socio-demography profile of study par cipants (n=110)Table 1
represents socio-demography of study par cipants.Out of 110 par cipants, 36.4% were of age group 20-29 years with equal gender distribu on.Majority (70%) was married and 46.4% of par cipants were of rela vely disadvantage non-dalit terai group.Majority (91.8%) were Hindu and from joint family (57.3%).Majority of par cipants were illiterate and 31.8% of par cipants were household worker.Majority (41.8%) had income of range NRS.5000-10000.Majority (88.2%) of par cipants their own home.All the par cipants were exposed to earthquake but no one had exposure to any training on earthquake preparedness.

Table 2 : Rela onship between knowledge and elected variables (n=110)
Ostad Taghizadeh A et al in Tehran(p=0.949).However, it was contrasted by study conducted by Oral M et al in Turkey which showed significant associa on between knowledge 6 and home ownership.As the study in Turkey was study was conducted in area which has sustained great infrastructure damage by recent earthquake, increased knowledge scores among property owners was more which is in contrast with this study.
supported by study conducted by Mahmoud M et al which showed significant associa on between marital status and 11 knowledge (p=0.001).This study revealed significant rela onship between knowledge and educa onal status