AWARENESS ON DISASTER MANAGEMENT AMONG HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN VIJAYAWADA CITY: AN INTERVENTIONAL STUDY
Background:ADisaster is a serious disruption occurring over a short or long period of time that causes widespread human, material, economic or 1 environmental loss which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources . The key to reducing the loss of 2 life, personal injuries, and damage from natural disasters is widespread public awareness and education . Disaster management includes prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery for which, regular training and awareness activities are needed especially among students to greatly reduce the impact of disasters. Materials and Methods: It was an educational interventional design with an exploratory research approach adopting nonprobability purposive sampling technique, which was conducted among 178 students of government high school, aged 16-18years in Vijayawada from July 2019 to September 2019. Apre-tested structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Data collected was analyzed with SPSS v20.0. Result: Awareness regarding disaster management among high school students was found to be 59.9 % and after the intervention, the awareness level raised to 90.6 %. Paired t-test test showed that there was statistically signicant (p<0.05) improvement in awareness among students after an educational intervention. Conclusion: These ndings emphasize that the extent of knowledge is not yet satisfactory and there is a severe need of providing knowledge to school children. Disaster management chapters should be incorporated as a part of the regular school curriculum for all students. Effective, purposeful training and awareness programs are to be timely conducted. Many Campaigns and NGOs should be encouraged to spread awareness among schools and the public.