The Social Vulnerability of Older People to Natural Disasters: An Integrative Review

Abstract

Background: Determining social vulnerability of elderly people is a prerequisite for risk analysis in natural disasters. Understanding and comprehension of different dimensions of elderly social vulnerability by using international experiences is a must to determine and ultimately measure this phenomenon. In this study, we tried to understand the dimensions of elderly social vulnerability in natural disasters based on international experiences. Materials and Methods: An integrative review of literature was conducted to clarify the elderly social vulnerability concept in natural disasters. We used keywords such as “elderly”, “social vulnerability”, and “natural disasters” in texts and titles in electronic databases of Medlib Iran Medex, Magiran, SID, Irandoc, Web of Science, Google Scholar CINAHL, ProQuest, Ovid, Ageline, Scopus, Embase, and Pub Med. At last 25 articles were found issued from 1986 to 2018. Their inclusion criteria were written in Persian or English language and had search keywords in their texts, titles, or and keywords. Commentary or editor letters were excluded. Each article was examined according to subjects, definition of social vulnerability, theoretical aspects, outcomes and antecedents of social vulnerability. For analyzing, controversial content analyses was used. Results: The results of the concept analysis showed that social vulnerability is a complex, dynamic, challenging, multi-dimensional and pre-existing condition that is dependent on individual characteristics as well as economic status. It is influenced by the culture and elderly people’s place of living. Conclusion: Reducing social vulnerability of older adults in natural disasters is not possible without paying enough attention to this issue and increasing their empowerment. Therefore, extensive research to identify this concept in related contexts and carry out qualitative research will be very effective in defining this concept and providing the appropriate tools for its measurement.