Preventive Practice on Earthquake Preparedness Among Higher Level Students of Dhaka City Among

The present study was descriptive Cross-sectional study conducted in Higher Secondary Level Students of Dhaka, Bangladesh, during 2017. The knowledge of respondent seems to be average regarding earthquake. There is a found to have a gap between knowledge and practice of the respondents. The association of the knowledge and the practice of the students were done in which after the cross-tabulation P value was 0.810 i.e., there is not any association between knowledge and the practice in this study. Similarly, after the cross tabulation among the knowledge and the gender the p value was < 0.005 i.e., there is association between knowledge and the gender and from this study female knowledge was higher compared to male students. About 45 (39%) of the respondent answered death as the main hazards that could be seen after the Earthquake followed by cut injuries/wound by 33 (29%). Out of 115 respondents, 55 (48%) has answered beam and pillar, 42 (36.5%) under the bed/Table as the safest place to be at the time of earthquake. Preventive Practice on Earthquake Preparedness Higher Level Students


Introduction
Disaster is a very common phenomenon to the human society.
The disaster had been taking place in human society before the evolution of the mankind. And the disaster has been believed to be having its existence and experience since time immemorial.
People are becoming more and more vulnerable to disasters of all types. This includes both natural and man-made. Some of the

Earthquake in Bangladesh
Bangladesh is called a land of natural disasters because almost every year she is attacked by different kinds of natural disasters.
Every year some common natural calamities like floods, cyclones, tidal bores, excessive rainfall, earthquake, and drought visit Bangladesh. Among all the natural calamities, floods and cyclones are most common. It visits, especially in the rainy season. It causes great harm to our agriculture, houses, and properties. However, any kinds of natural calamities cause a heavy loss in our country.
Many people are killed, many are lost, and many become homeless.
Many cattle die. Many houses collapse. Many fatal diseases like cholera, typhoid, diarrhea etc. break out. Educational institutions, trees and communication systems are damaged due to natural calamity. In a word, natural calamities cause untold sufferings to people. However, we cannot protect natural calamities, but we can take some measures to minimize losses of the victims. We can raise awareness among the people and train them in this regard [2].
Bangladesh is geographically located on a seismically active region and highly vulnerable to earthquakes. Its northern and eastern regions are known for experiencing earthquakes that surpass 5 on the Richter Scale; and cities such as Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet are particularly vulnerable as a result of rapid urbanization, poor planning, high population density, and innumerable high rises and buildings that are yet to meet National Building Codes [3].
Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries of the world in terms of natural and anthropogenic hazards, is a low-lying deltaic country covering an area of 147,470 sq. km and supporting about 150 million people with population density of 1033 per km. sq.
The geographical setting and meteorological characteristics have made the country vulnerable to different geo-hazards and hydrometrological hazards [4].
Dhaka expanded very quickly due its growing importance as the capital. Buildings were being built on the riverside humus soil in the east and west. In the low-lying areas, they were built using the arching method. These attractive, multi-story buildings were constructed using faulty designs. The bottom floor is a parking space, and they are called soft story buildings. Due to earthquakes or even strong winds, the lateral deflection of the building top caused by the ensuing tremors cannot be resisted due to these large, unobstructed spaces on the bottom floor (known as a soft story collapse). These soft story tall buildings are vulnerable to distant earthquakes. Widespread brick masonry, non-engineered and poorly constructed buildings would be hit worse than ever in the history of Dhaka. The catastrophic picture will be beyond our imagination and could even lead to abandonment of the city [5].
The researchers, however, could not say when the earthquake would occur --whether it is imminent or would occur after 100 years. The study has found evidence that the northeastern corner of the Indian subcontinent is actively colliding with Asia, potentially posing a major earthquake risk to the region. After using ground and satellite GPS monitors to measure surface activity between 2003 and 2013, an international team of researchers has shown Bangladesh is sitting on a huge subduction zone [6]. A strong earthquake of 6.8 magnitude tremors, with the epicenter in central Myanmar's Chauk was felt in Dhaka as well on August 2016 leaving high-rise buildings shaken in the cities and leading to panic among citizens [7]. The and property in the event of a moderately large earthquake [5].

Justification of the Study
Dhaka is too much vulnerable of earthquake disaster due to some reasons. First of all, the population density is very high in Dhaka city. Secondly, it is predicted that the secondary hazard like fire break out from gas and electricity line will have more disastrous impact after earthquake. Thirdly, not only building codes are not maintain during construction time of most of the high-rise apartment buildings and most garment factory buildings but also they have been constructed without open spaces and most have encroached upon the streets and roadways [9]. A powerful earthquake occurred in Nepal on 25 th April 2015 where the tremors were also felt in other South East Asian countries including Bangladesh, India and China. Bangladesh was jolted twice by tremors and, although the tremor was not as severe, it was reported to be between 4 and 5 on the Richter scale. In Bangladesh, six lives were lost, and more than 200 people were injured and were taken to hospital. There were also many buildings that collapsed in the mega city Dhaka and its surrounding areas. This experience and the lessons learnt highlight the importance for national earthquakeproof building regulations and systems to lessen the damage and devastation of any future earthquake [10].

Method and Materials
The Descriptive Cross-sectional study was carried out for the

Ethical Considerations
The required permission was taken by the Ethical Review Committee of American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB) to conduct the research. Also, Prior Permission from concerned Authorities was received for conducting study in their premises.

Results and Findings
The study was done with 115 participants; 56 (48.7%) were male and 59 (51.9%) were female. Most of the respondents were of the 17 years ( Figure 1). Most of the respondents followed Islam religion 111 (97%) and only few respondents were Hindu 4(3%). Respondents were asked about the disease that are likely to be seen after earthquake, 50 (43.5%) of them have answered water borne disease. Followed by 31 (27%) non-communicable disease, 21 (18.3%) of the respondent answered that they do not know about the situation on what disease could be seen after the earthquake.
And 3 (2.6%) respondents have answered STI. We can say that they do not have much knowledge regarding the disease after the earthquake. (Figure 4).      The knowledge score has been calculated by the formula Mean + S.D. And all the right answer to the knowledge related variables were given 1 mark, similarly to all the wrong ones were given 0.

Calculation of Knowledge Score
From which the total knowledge score has been calculated. 80 With the findings we can say that majority of the respondents have average knowledge regarding earthquake and its preventive measure. Still, many respondents lack basic information on earthquake and its preparedness (Table 1) Table 2).
The association of the knowledge about the earthquake and the preventive practices of the earthquake among the higher secondary level's students were done in above and practice are not associated. Here, we can also say that the knowledge about the earthquake and the preventive practice on the earthquake among the higher secondary level students of Dhaka city is not associated (Tables 3-6).    the respondent towards earthquake. For the association between knowledge and gender 'P' value was 0.009, i.e., it is significant. We can say knowledge and gender do have association. For association P value should be smaller than 0.05 i.e. (P < 0.05).

Discussion
Earthquake is contingent and unpredicted and can only be dealt by effective disaster management plans. Disaster including earthquake never happened does not mean it can never happen. It can happen at any time and at any moment. The study has aimed at examining the level of knowledge and practice towards earthquake preparedness among higher secondary level students of Dhaka city.
The study has been carried out to a small portion of Dhaka City. In this study the higher secondary student's knowledge level on earthquake and practice level of the earthquake were analyzed using the chi-square test which after the analysis found not satisfactory. there was no statistical significance on personal preparedness The analysis showed that the education level was not a significant factor for taking precautionary actions against an earthquake (p=0.150) [12].
The knowledge score and the sex of the respondent were cross tabulated to see their significance of knowledge and sex of the respondent i.e., 0.89 > 0.05. The sex was significant to the knowledge level for the earthquake and its preparedness. Similarly, the mean score of female respondents was 20.85 and the male was 18.29 in this study. Which means the knowledge of the female was higher compared to the males. In a way we can say females are higher knowledgeable in terms to male of the higher secondary level students of the study. Similar result was found in the study done in 375 undergraduate medical students where the mean score was 8.77 which was slightly higher in females [13][14][15][16].

Conclusion and Recommendation
The knowledge of earthquake and its preparedness among Higher Secondary Student were average. Though they had a good knowledge on disaster, still few students were unable to answer about the preparedness meaning. They knew about the causation about the Earthquake, but few are unaware of the fact if earthquake can ever hit Dhaka city or not. Though the disaster and earthquake knowledge has been provided from the college but still more awareness programmed on earthquake preparedness in school should be carried out focusing on behavioral change of the students.