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Review
. 2023 Oct:35:102282.
doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2023.102282. Epub 2023 Jun 14.

Preparing for the next outbreak: A review of indices measuring outbreak preparedness, vulnerability, and resilience

Christopher J Rogers  1   2 , Blayne Cutler  1 , Kasturi Bhamidipati  1   3 , Jo Kay Ghosh  1
Affiliations
Review

Preparing for the next outbreak: A review of indices measuring outbreak preparedness, vulnerability, and resilience

Christopher J Rogers et al. Prev Med Rep. 2023 Oct.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for relevant metrics describing the resources and community attributes that affect the impact of communicable disease outbreaks. Such tools can help inform policy, assess change, and identify gaps to potentially reduce the negative outcomes of future outbreaks. The present review was designed to identify available indices to assess communicable disease outbreak preparedness, vulnerability, or resilience, including articles describing an index or scale developed to address disasters or emergencies which could be applied to addressing a future outbreak. This review assesses the landscape of indices available, with a particular focus on tools assessing local-level attributes. This systematic review yielded 59 unique indices applicable to assessing communicable disease outbreaks through the lens of preparedness, vulnerability, or resilience. However, despite the large number of tools identified, only 3 of these indices assessed factors at the local level and were generalizable to different types of outbreaks. Given the influence of local resources and community attributes on a wide range of communicable disease outcomes, there is a need for local-level tools that can be applied broadly to various types of outbreaks. Such tools should assess both current and long-term changes in outbreak preparedness with the intent to identify gaps, inform local-level decision makers, public policy, and future response to current and novel outbreaks.

Keywords: Index; Outbreak; Preparedness; Resilience; Vulnerability.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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Flow diagram for study review process.
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