Earthquakes to Floods: A Scoping Review of Health-related Disaster Research in Low- and Middle-income Countries

Conclusion Our scoping review assessed the characteristics of peer-reviewed publications of empirical health-related disaster research conducted in LMICs and published in 2003-2012. To our knowledge, this is the first synthesis to focus exclusively on health-related empirical research conducted during disasters. We found that many health-related research publications focus on the most devastating events, namely those that affect the largest number of people and those with the highest mortality rates. The most common research topics were those requiring the most immediate attention, such as traumatology, wounds, and the resultant surgeries typically carried out within hours or days of a disaster. In the months and years following a disaster, research attention turned to the mental health sequelae such as post-traumatic stress and depression. Three main recommendations are apparent from this study: 1) the need to increase post-disaster health-related research capacity particularly in LMICs; 2) the need to research chronic diseases and their management after a disaster and 3) the need for methodologically rigorous research using a wide range of study designs, including ones that can produce strong evidence to guide practice and policy, and which go beyond cross-sectional descriptive studies. Corresponding Author Matthew Hunt, PhD Competing Interests The authors have read PLOS Currents policy and have no competing interests to declare. Data Availability Statement A list of the...
Source: PLOS Currents Disasters - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Source Type: research