Spatial distribution of quality of life among Nantou’s residents after 1999 Taiwan earthquake
Date Issued
2004
Date
2004
Author(s)
Hsiao, Yi-Yun
DOI
zh-TW
Abstract
Abstract
Background: Spatial distribution of residents’ quality of life (QOL)in the disaster areas after an earthquake has not been studied before.
Aims: This study aims to use Geological Information System (GIS) to evaluate the distribution of residents’ QOL surrounding the epicenter after 1999 Taiwan earthquake.
Methods: One cross-sectional survey on 1,747 residents in the disaster area was conducted one year after the 1999 Taiwan earthquake. The brief version of the World Health Organization’s Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) was used to measure quality of life and a questionnaire was used to obtain earthquake-related variables for our study subjects. Individual’s adjusted QOL was obtained by using General Linear Models (GLM) to account for age, gender, religion, education, marital status, financial loss, bereavement, house damage, and financial hardship. Individual’s distance to the epicenter was calculated by the least-square method. The contours of QOL surrounding the epicenter were developed by the inverse distance weighted (IDW) method in the ArcView 8.2.
Results: Residents’ distance away from epicenter in improved significantly their quality of life in psychological, social and environmental domains. Their increases were 0.2, 0.1, and 0.1 per kilometer, respectively. No significant association was found between distance and QOL in the physiological domain. The GIS maps showed QOL contours had similar spatial trend as statistical modeling results. The QOL contours were not symmetry around epicenter but were easterly leaned toward the mountain townships in the disaster areas.
Conclusion: Distance from epicenter is a significant predictor of resident’s QOL in psychological, social and environmental domains after an earthquake.
Subjects
災難
生活品質
地震研究
disarster
Quality of Life
Geographic Information System
earthquake
SDGs
Type
thesis
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
ntu-93-R91841017-1.pdf
Size
23.31 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):6fdb3a5bd4d6301a33b6002c2004653c