Social Trust and Disaster Preparedness: Insights from a Narrative Review

Ghorbanzadeh, Kobra; Sepahvand, Elham

doi:10.22087/ijac.2025.555196.1072

Social Trust and Disaster Preparedness: Insights from a Narrative Review

Document Type : Review

Authors

Kobra Ghorbanzadeh ¹

Elham Sepahvand ²

¹ School of Medical Sciences, Khalkhal Faculty of Medical Sciences, Ardebil, Iran

² Assistant professor of nursing education, poldokhtar school of nursing, social determinant of health research center, lorestan university of medical sciences, khorramabad, iran

10.22087/ijac.2025.555196.1072

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the role of social trust in disaster preparedness and its contribution to enhancing community resilience and public health. By synthesizing existing evidence, this review underscores how social trust among individuals, communities, and organizations can bolster risk perception, participation, and coordinated action during disasters. A narrative review was conducted using the keywords “emergency,” “social trust,” “promoting social trust,” “laypeople involvement,” “disaster preparedness,” “strategies,” and “challenges.” Searches were performed in reputable databases, including Scopus, PubMed, and the Web of Science. The primary inclusion criteria were full-text articles published in Persian or English between 1990 and 2024. The STROBE checklist was employed to assess and ensure the quality of the selected studies. Twelve articles were analyzed. The findings reveal that both social trust and disaster preparedness encounter several challenges, including inadequate risk perception, limited self-management among individuals, unclear responsibilities, inefficient human resource management, insufficient transparency of statistics, disaster-related psychological shock, conflicts of interest among relief organizations, neglect of volunteer forces, and weak coordination in information-sharing processes. These findings highlight the necessity of integrating community engagement and trust-building strategies into disaster preparedness planning. Policymakers, healthcare providers, and emergency managers can enhance preparedness by improving transparency, clarifying responsibilities, and fostering collaborative networks that actively include volunteers and local stakeholders. This is one of the few narrative reviews that specifically addresses the role of social trust in disaster preparedness. In conclusion, enhancing social trust through community involvement in disaster preparedness planning can be pivotal in strengthening public confidence in relief organizations. To advance knowledge in this area, future research employing a quantitative approach is recommended to further explore the relationship between social trust and disaster preparedness.

Keywords

Social trust

Disasters and emergencies

Narrative review

Disaster preparedness

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