(A277) Assessing the Psychosocial Elements of Crowds at Mass Gatherings

Abstract

The physicality of mass gatherings has been well described in the literature. The factors effecting the rate of illness and injury at mass gatherings have been well described and include the type and duration of the event, the type and age of crowd, and the availability of drugs and alcohol. In 2004 Arbon proposed a conceptual model that describes the relationship between the environmental, psychosocial and the biomedical domains of mass gatherings. However to date the science of mass gatherings has focussed on the environmental and biomedical domains. There is minimal evidence to support or describe the psychosocial domain. Current tools available to assess the psychosocial domain are scarce even though it is considered an integral part of a mass gathering event. Berlonghi (1995) and Zietz (2009) proposed two measurements, crowd type and crowd mood respectively. This paper reports on a pilot project undertaken to evaluate how effective these tools are to understand the psychosocial domain of a mass gathering event.