Earthquake literacy among people living in high-rise buildings in Bangkok

Abstract

Background: Bangkok is at risk of long-distance earthquake because of its soft clay ground that can absorb the severity of an earthquake. Even though Bangkok has “The Action Plan for Earthquake and Building Collapse Prevention and Mitigation,” a survey of earthquake literacy in a group of people particularly residents who have lived in high-rise building is still unavailable.

Objective: To study residents of high-rise buildings in Bangkok’s regarding their earthquake literacy level.

Methods: This research is a cross-sectional descriptive study. The subjects recruited were 400 residents of high-rise building in Bangkok which were selected by using stratified random sampling method, and a self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. The study duration was from July to September 2017. Survey response rates were 82.99 %

Results: The result of this study showed that most subjects were female. Median of age is 29 years old. The subjects were single, holding a Bachelor’s degree, and work as permanent employee, their median of income is 20,000 baht. Residential information showed that most of them live in 8-story high-rise building between first to seventh floor. Workplace information revealed that most of them work in less than 8-story office building between first to seventh floor and spend time around 8.36 hours per day. The subjects’ perception of earthquake confrontation revealed that 95.5 subjects had never experienced a earthquake before. Fiftyseven
percent of the subjects knew how to behave during an earthquake and knew the information mainly from the Internet and television. In addition, 88.75% of the subjects answered that their workplace had never provided any earthquake drill to educate about behavioral rules in earthquake confrontation and 95.25% of the samples answered that their workplace had never provided an earthquake drill before. The results revealed that 36.75 % of residents had earthquake literacy at average level. The questions that most respondents answered right was “ I know that we cannot use lifts during an earthquake”; the question most respondents answered wrong mostly was “I have practiced with my family and friends to go to immigration route and meeting points
outside building after an earthquake.”

Conclusion: Literacy of earthquake preparation is crucial, but the number of people who have been trained or practiced were in low rates; therefore, it should be considered to provide a measure or guidelines to raise literacy of earthquake preparation.