Health worker’s knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding household preparedness based on the DART program: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: In Iran, the assessment and preparedness of households for disasters is managed by primary health care (PHC) staff through disaster risk reduction management programs (DRRMPs), particularly the disaster assessment of readiness and training (DART) program. This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of health workers regarding household preparedness within this framework. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 423 health workers from Isfahan Medical Sciences University in 2023. Participants from various levels of health care attended training workshops and completed the household disaster preparedness index (HDPI) questionnaire, the (Federal Emergency Management Agency) FEMA questionnaire, and a knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) questionnaire. Targeted sampling was used for respondent selection, and data analysis was conducted using Spearman, Chi-square, and Mann Whitney U tests with SPSS 27.0. RESULTS: The mean age of participants was 38.31 years, with 64.5% being female. About 70.1% had a bachelor’s degree, and 44.2% had less than 10 years of work experience. Only 2.1% and 0.9% of respondents were classified as “Most Prepared” according to the HDPI and FEMA questionnaires, respectively. Knowledge was negatively correlated with attitude (r = −0.366). Statistically significant differences were found between practices and home ownership, education level, age, and work experience (all P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The findings reveal that health workers lack sufficient positive attitudes and performance regarding household preparedness in emergencies. Thus, a systematic framework is needed to enhance their knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to disaster preparedness (DP) for policy making in this area.