This article presents a preliminary investigation on the motivations for and the barriers that hinder preparedness toward disasters in a community. Survey questionnaires were distributed to local individuals in the nine districts of Selangor state in Malaysia. A total of 402 usable questionnaires were analyzed. The initial findings revealed that community members are motivated for disaster preparedness mainly for family safety reason. However, generally they do not know how to be prepared. This article concludes by highlighting the importance of knowledge and information in community preparedness. This research is limited to one state in Malaysia. However, the chosen state has a large effect on the Malaysian gross domestic product; hence, lack of preparedness poses a critical risk to its large population. This study on motivation and barriers for disaster preparedness is intended to increase the effectiveness of community readiness as a whole toward major disasters such as landslide and flood. The result of this study is valuable to the scientific community within the disaster management domain, the government agencies for policy and strategy formulations, and the local community to preempt, deal with, and ultimately survive disasters. This research aims to ensure that the community is continuously prepared and able to meet the evolving needs of the individual citizen as the nation strives toward promoting a knowledgeable society.
In the twenty-first century, climate change is emerging as a significant threat to the health and well-being of the public through links to the following: extreme weather events, sea level rise, temperature-related illnesses, air pollution patterns, water security, food security, vector-borne infectious diseases, and mental health effects (as a result of extreme weather events and climate change-induced population displacement). This article discusses how national healthcare systems can be redesigned through changes in its components such as human resources, facilities and technology, health information system, and health policy to meet these challenges.
In Sarawak, Malaysia, several exceptional safety precautions and measures were adopted to prevent the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic from spreading. Individuals' attitudes and opinions have impact on their obedience toward control procedures. Sarawak residents' attitudes and opinions toward COVID-19 were investigated in the present study. An online questionnaire developed using Google Forms was completed by 1,462 residents from all 12 divisions in Sarawak. The findings show that most Sarawak residents have positive attitudes and opinions about current standard operating procedures (SOPs) toward COVID-19. More than half of the respondents stand unbiased for the effectiveness of these SOPs, while most respondents have a neutral standpoint regarding the current law enforcement. The partial least square regression results found using the WarpPLS 7.0 software indicate that Sarawak residents' attitudes, opinions about current SOPs, and their effectiveness are significantly linked to practices for the prevention of COVID-19 outbreak, whereas these residents' opinions about current law enforcement were observed to have no significant relationship with proper practices for measures.