ORIGINAL PAPER
Social determinants in choice of shelter: an evidence-
based analysis
Hsiang-Chieh Lee
1
·
Hongey Chen
1,2
Received: 18 September 2017 / Accepted: 10 May 2018
© Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract This research looked for social determinants that shaped choices of shelter
during a natural disaster. The choices consisted of hotels/rental houses, finding relatives/
friends, contacting the government for help, and checking for information about public
shelters online. Social determinants examined included age, disability, education, income,
social network, trust in the government, and previous disaster experience. The 2013 Tai-
wan Social Change Survey data and logistic regression were used for analysis. The findings
were as follows: (1) compared with other groups, the richest favored hotels or rental houses
for sheltering. (2) Compared with other groups, people with lower levels of education had a
tendency to contact the government for help regarding shelter. (3) Compared with other
groups, young people (20–34 years old), people with larger social networks (informal
social capital), and people with more than one previous disaster experience preferred to
contact relatives or friends for shelter. (4) People with at least a senior high school
education were more likely to search for sheltering information online than their coun-
terparts. This study provides new contributions to the literature in its investigation of the
influences of social networks and previous natural disaster experience on shelter choice
and of education on the choice of checking sheltering information online.
Keywords Shelter · Age · Income · Education · Social network · Disaster experience
1 Introduction
Effective management of shelters is essential because of the limited logistical and human
capacity to operate shelters during disasters. Evidence-based analyses of choices of shelters
can help policymakers understand the demographics of those likely to use public shelters
& Hsiang-Chieh Lee
hchieh@ncdr.nat.gov.tw
1
National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction, New Taipei City 23143, Taiwan
2
Department of Geosciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106, Taiwan
123
Nat Hazards
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-018-3352-6
@Phil_Robichaud
@deepthiw
@JoseServera