LAUSR

Abstract In many areas, disasters are a paramount risk to the lives and livelihoods of people and to their social-economic development. Earthquakes are among the most dangerous geologic phenomena on our planet. The elderly are particularly exposed to disaster risk and are likely to suffer from higher rates of mortality, morbidity and economic damage to their livelihoods. However, they are seldom given due consideration in disaster response from their perspectives, such as their unique capabilities and experiences, familiar societal roles, living conditions and specific needs. Furthermore, the elderly are often neglected particularly when compared to children. Using a quantitative methodology, this article aims to evaluate whether age has an impact on mortality rate, explores age groups with the greatest vulnerabilities of the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake, in China and the 1995 Kobe Earthquake, in Japan. Data of the final death tolls and total population sorted by age in the two afore-mentioned earthquakes were collected from the HYOGO Pref-medical Association and the Dujiangyan Bureau of Statistics. One-way ANOVA (multiple comparison analysis) was applied to analyze the data. Results of this study showed that in the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake in China and the 1995 Kobe earthquake in Japan there is a greater significance in the relationship between the elderly aged over 75 and the mean mortality rate than that of children. To achieve greater resilience to disasters requires that older people’s significant vulnerabilities are identified, and considerations discussed from their own unique perspectives are recognized and promoted to enhance disaster risk reduction.