Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2008 Jan;5(1):A27.
Epub 2007 Dec 15.

Disaster preparedness and the chronic disease needs of vulnerable older adults

Nancy Aldrich  1 , William F Benson
Affiliations
Review

Disaster preparedness and the chronic disease needs of vulnerable older adults

Nancy Aldrich et al. Prev Chronic Dis. 2008 Jan.

Abstract

About 80% of older adults have at least one chronic condition that makes them more vulnerable than healthy people during a disaster. These chronic conditions - combined with the physiological, sensory, and cognitive changes experienced as part of aging - result in frail older adults having special needs during emergencies. Planning and coordination among public health and emergency preparedness professionals and professionals who provide services for the aging are essential to meet these special needs. Several tools and strategies already exist to help prepare these professionals to protect and assist older adults during a disaster. These include having professionals from diverse fields work and train in coalitions, ensuring that advocates for older adults participate in community-wide emergency preparedness, and using community mapping data to identify areas where many older adults live.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. He W, Sengupta M, Velkoff VA, DeBarros KA. 65+ in the United States: 2005. Washington (DC): U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging, and U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Census Bureau; 2005. http://www.census.gov/prod/2006pubs/p23-209.pdf .
    1. Fernandez LS, Byard D, Lin CC, Benson S, Barbera JA. Frail elderly as disaster victims: emergency management strategies. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2002;17(2):67–74. - PubMed
    1. Gibson MJ. We can do better: lessons learned for protecting older persons in disasters. Washington (DC): AARP; 2006. http://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/il/better.pdf .
    1. Campbell J. On belonging and belongings: older adults, Katrina and lessons learned. Presentation to the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging. 2006. http://www.n4a.org/ppt/2006conf_JennyCampbell.ppt .
    1. 2004 American Community Survey Data Profile: New Orleans city, Louisiana. Washington (DC): U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau; http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ADPTable?_bm=y&-context=adp&-%20-ds... .