Evidence Aid bulletin: 28 September 2023
Hello everyone,
While we are pleased to send you Evidence Aid’s September 2023 bulletin, we would like to use this publication to bring your attention to several humanitarian crises and our freely available resources to support response efforts. From earthquakes in Morocco to floods in Libya, our summaries of relevant systematic reviews can help support fast-paced decision-making efforts. In addition to summaries on PTSD among children and adolescents after earthquakes and floods, this month’s bulletin will also include recently added summaries from our Resilient Health Systems collection, in collaboration with the Pan American World Health Organization (PAHO).
We hope you find this month’s newsletter informative and accessible, and we thank you for your continued support and reading. As always, if anyone would like to be notified of the bulletin and/or newsletter’s release, or, if you have any questions or concerns about our work at Evidence Aid, please contact Jane Copsey (info@evidenceaid.org). If you like our work and think it is important that we continue through 2024, please consider donating here.
***
PTSD among children and adolescents after earthquakes and floods
Disasters can cause post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the impacted populations, with children and adolescents of particular vulnerability. As such, in this systematic review, the authors identified studies performed on the prevalence of PTSD in children and adolescents after earthquakes and floods. The authors found that the prevalence of PTSD in children and adolescents exposed to earthquakes and floods increased directly during and after the disaster, however, such reactions decreased with time. The authors also found that girls had a much higher prevalence of PTSD than boys, thus leading the authors to suggest that psychological support should be provided to children and adolescents, but especially girls.
Citation: Rezayat AA, et al. Evaluating the prevalence of PTSD among children and adolescents after earthquakes and floods: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychiatric Quarterly. 2020;91(4):1265-90.
You can find a full summary in the Earthquakes collection.
***
Evacuation of hospitals in disasters
In the wake of disaster, the maintenance of hospitals remains of high importance, ensuring their normal functioning to respond to emergency response efforts. As such, in order to examine the decision-making mechanisms behind hospital evacuation in the wake of disasters, the authors identified 34 relevant articles in their systematic review. The authors found that factors which affected hospital evacuation included the four following categories: threat, hospital infrastructure, external factors, and internal factors. Some specific factors included level of disaster severity, loss of electricity and water, physical access to hospitals, and resources such as staff or patients. However, the authors found that the most important factor associated with hospital evacuation decision-making was risk to staff and patients.
Citation: Yaghoubi T, et al. Decision-making on hospital emergency evacuation in disasters and emergencies: findings from a systematic review. Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal. 2017;19(11):e14214.
You can find a full summary in the Resilient Health Systems collection with the addition of five new summaries related to resilient health systems since the beginning of September.
***
Delivery of emergency care services in post-conflict or conflict-affected settings
Post-conflict settings, including geographical regions impacted by war or crisis, possess a unique challenge to the delivery of emergency care services. As such, the authors of this systematic review assessed the difficulties associated with the delivery of emergency care systems in order to propose improvements. Their systematic review found that the four greatest barriers impacting delivery of emergency care systems in post-conflict settings included poor infrastructure, social distrust, scarcity of emergency care training, and lack of available resources and supplies. Future efforts should focus on the effective delivery of emergency care interventions, examining how previous post-conflict settings have successfully delivered care with limited resources.
Citation: Werner K, et al. Emergency care in post-conflict settings: a systematic literature review. BMC Emergency Medicine. 2023;23:37.
You can find a full summary in the Resilient Health Systems collection with the addition of five new summaries related to resilient health systems since the beginning of September.
***
Thank you for reading this month’s bulletin. We hope that these three summaries provide evidence-based and relevant insight to effectively respond to current disasters, including support to those affected in Morocco and Libya; please do let us know if there are systematic reviews of relevance that you would like us to summarise. If you would like to take a closer look at our resources, visit this page for information on summaries relevant to floods, and here to learn more about our Earthquakes collection.
As a final reminder, anyone who would like to receive these bulletins directly or has questions about our work should contact Jane Copsey (info@evidenceaid.org). And, as a donor-based organization, we appreciate your continued support. If you think our work is important, please consider donating here.
From,
Your Evidence Aid team