The communities settled in this traditional flood-prone area are potentially at risk of frequent inundation. This
compelled the affected population to cope or adapt some strategy to reduce the negative impacts on their lives. The
objective of this study was to explore the coping approach among the residents in a flood affected traditional village in
Kuala Nerus, Terengganu and determine its associated factors. A cross sectional study which involved 210 adults who
lived in traditional village houses was conducted from April to May 2015. Universal sampling was applied. This
community-based study was part of the curriculum requirement for undergraduate medical students of UniSZA. The
participants’ background, experience during the recent flood and their coping response were assessed using selfadministered
validated Malay version Brief COPE inventory that consists of three domains (emotion-focused, problemfocused
and less-useful), 14 subscales and 30 items. The mean (SD) age of participants were 46.7(15.54) years with
almost equal sex ratio. Most of the participants were married (78.1%) and unemployed (54.8%). The most common coping
approach applied by the villagers was emotion-focused followed by problem-focused and less-useful coping. There were
four adjusted variables significantly associated with higher total coping score namely awareness on evacuation site
(b=5.38, 95%CI:1.68,9.08, p=0.005), knowledge on health risk of flood (b=3.79, 95%CI:0.92,6.66, p=0.010), discussed on
flood preparedness with family (b=2.50, 95%CI:0.84,4.16, p=0.003) and stored food before flood (b=4.506, 95%CI
1.67,7.34, p=0.002). The emotion-focused coping was the most preferred coping approach among the villagers. A
significant better coping was associated with the villagers who were aware of the gazetted evacuation site and have
knowledge on the flood health hazard. The villagers who planned with their family and practiced storage of adequate
food as part of household preparedness also demonstrated significant higher coping level.