Aftershocks associated with impaired health caused by the great East Japan disaster among youth across Japan: a national cross-sectional survey

• Published in: Interactive journal of medical research 2013-12, Vol.2 (2), p.e31
• Main Authors: Sugimoto, Takashi, Shinozaki, Tomohiro, Miyamoto, Yuki
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Disasters; Earthquakes; Evacuation; Handicapped; Health; Health Problems; Health status; Individual differences; Internet; Japan; Mental health; Natural Disasters; Nuclear energy; Nuclear Reactors; Original Paper; Power; Radiation; Risk factors; Socioeconomic factors; Subjective judgments; Work Environment
• ISSN: 1929-073X; 1438-8871; 1929-073X; 1438-8871
• DOI: 10.2196/ijmr.2585

The Great East Japan earthquake, subsequent tsunamis and the Fukushima nuclear incident had a tremendous impact on Japanese society. Although small-scale surveys have been conducted in highly affected areas, few have elucidated the disaster's effect on health from national perspective, which is necessary to prepare national policy and response. The aim of the present study was to describe prefecture-level health status and investigate associations with number of aftershocks, seismic intensity, a closer geographical location to the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, or higher reported radiation dose in each prefecture even after adjusting for individual socioeconomic factors, by utilizing individual-level data acquired from a national cross-sectional Internet survey as well as officially reported prefecture-level data. A Japanese government research institute obtained 12,000 participants by quota sampling and 7335 participants were eligible for the analysis in an age range between 17 and 27 years old. We calculated the percentage of people with decreased subjective health in each prefecture after the earthquake. Variability introduced by a small sample size for some prefectures was smoothed using empirical Bayes estimation with a random-intercept logistic model, with and without demographic factors. Multilevel logistic regression was used to calculate adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for change of subjective health associated with prefecture-level and individual-level factors. Adjusted empirical Bayes estimates were higher for respondents commuting in the northeast region (Iwate 14%, Miyagi 19%, and Fukushima 28%), which faces the Pacific Ocean, while the values for Akita (10%) and Yamagata (8%) prefectures, which do not face the Pacific Ocean, were lower than those of Tokyo (12%). The values from the central to the western region were clearly lower. The number of aftershocks was coherently associated with decreased health (OR 1.05 per 100 times, 95% CI 1.04-1.06; P