Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness
Volume 8 – Issue 05 – October 2014
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayIssue?jid=DMP&tab=currentissue

Systematic Review
Resilience—Rhetoric to Reality: A Systematic Review of Intervention Studies After Disasters
Gisela van Kessela1 c1, Colin MacDougalla2 and Lisa Gibbsa3
a1 School of Health Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia
a2 Southgate Institute for Health, Society and Equity, and School of Medicine, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia & Jack Brockhoff Child Health & Wellbeing Program, University of Melbourne
a3 Jack Brockhoff Child Health & Wellbeing Program, Centre for Health Equity, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria
Abstract
Objective This report aimed to examine the literature regarding evidence about community-based interventions that use the concept of resilience to increase positive health outcomes after disaster.
Methods A search was conducted of databases; gray literature, public health journals, and available key journals focused on disaster, emergency, and trauma from inception to December 2013. Excluded were non-English publications, only about children or adolescents, or a commentary or theoretical discussion on resilience.
Results From a total of 1880 records, excluding duplicates, 8 studies were found. Exclusions included participants younger than age 18 years (n=74), non-English (n=40), nonempirical (n=265), not referring to disaster (n=188), not a public health intervention (n=319), and not related to an intervention targeting resilience (n=890).
Conclusions This systematic review highlighted a gap in the evidence relating to interventions targeting the resilience of adults who have experienced a disaster. The results were mixed in relation to information provision but promising for strategies that promote social interactions or develop community competence. Future studies could explore the ability of interventions to build the intrinsic capacity of a system, community, or society at risk of a disaster to adapt and survive. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2014;0:1-9)