Newswise - STRATFORD - Rachel Pruchno, PhD, director of research at the Institute of New Jersey for the aging successful at Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine, has received a two-year scholarship $681.000 from the United States Department of health and human services to examine the effects of the hurricane Sandy in a large representative sample of more than 3,200 seniors living in nine New Jersey counties most affected by the storm. The study will identify aspects of social capital that promote resilience of older adults exposed to the disaster. Because the participants were also evaluated twice (in 2006 and 2011) before Hurricane Sandy, the study offers a unique opportunity to understand the resilience in the elderly.
"Natural disasters tend to have an impact disproportionate in older people interrupting the resources they need to function independently," said Pruchno, "older people accounted for 65 percent of the deaths related to Hurricane Sandy. Understand how affects the social capital of neighborhood resilience primarily to expand the scope of the investigation of the disaster and identify ways that help to protect the health and safety of seniors in emergency situations.
Pruchno estimated that nearly two-thirds of the eligible participants will have had any exposure personal disaster. The results of this study will provide information critical to informing individual and community-based interventions that can help to minimize the vulnerability of older persons, both before and after a disaster strikes.
"The resistance of an individual is not only a function of that individual's characteristics, resources, and exposure to the disaster," said Pruchno. "Resilience is also affected by the districts where they lived before, during and after the hurricane. Growing evidence suggests that the characteristics of the environment are considerable variations in resistance, and that these effects are stronger in later life".
In addition to interviewing the participants of the study in the nine counties of New Jersey, the researchers gather to be data from a variety of sources, including Medicare and Medicaid claims data, the 2010 Census and providers of community focus groups.
This project is being funded by a grant from the office of the Assistant Secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of health and human services of the United States.
Journalists interested in speaking with Rachel Pruchno, PhD, should contact Jerry Carey, Rowan University media communication and public relations, at careyge@rowan.edu or 856-566-6171.
About Rowan University
Rowan University is an institution of State public inquiry appointed with campuses in Glassboro, Camden and Stratford, N.j., offered through doctoral degree programmes to 14,000 students. In the past two years, Rowan created a school of Biomedical Sciences; He opened the University Cooper medical school of Rowan based in Camden; and the school of medicine Osteopathic, which formed part of the University of medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, making Rowan only the second University in the nation to grant medical degrees both M.D. and D.O. built-in. Rowan is also scheduled to collaborate with Rutgers-Camden to create a new University of Health Sciences in Camden, with degree programs related to the growth of necessary medical services in the future. Recently appointed by the State only the second institution of comprehensive public research in New Jersey, Rowan plans to increase sponsored research to $100 million a year. These new initiatives will be added to Rowan Rohrer College of Business and powers of communication and creative arts, education, engineering, graduate and continuing education, humanities and social sciences, performing arts and science and mathematics.
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