著者

Michio Murakami Yoshitake Takebayashi Masaharu Tsubokura

出版者

Tohoku University Medical Press

雑誌

The Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine (ISSN:00408727)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.247, no.1, pp.13-17, 2019 (Released:2019-01-11)

参考文献数

14

被引用文献数

27

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Psychological distress has become a serious health risk after the Fukushima nuclear accident. Although, following the lifting of evacuation orders, the affected people have started returning home, their current status of psychological distress has not been reported yet. Here, we report the levels of psychological distress in both returnees and evacuees by using a K6 indicator. In January 2018, questionnaires were randomly distributed among 2,000 people, aged 20 to 79 years old, who were registered on the Basic Resident Register in the evacuation order areas of nine municipalities where residents have now started returning home. The total number of participants was 625. The returnees showed a significantly better psychological distress status than the evacuees. Multivariate-adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) among the returnees (reference = evacuees), estimated from a logistic analysis by using age, sex, and annual income as covariates, were 0.525 (0.325-0.846) for K6 ≥ 10 and 0.444 (0.216-0.911) for K6 ≥ 13. The prevalence of K6 ≥ 10 in the returnees when adjusted by the age and sex distribution of the whole of Japan was 16.2%, higher than the value (10.3%) at 20 to 79 years old in the whole of Japan. Psychological distress among the evacuees is an urgent problem to be resolved, and social support is still necessary for the returnees. Long term follow-up of returnees, investigations of causality between return and psychological distress and its governing factors in each of the evacuee and returnee groups are required for the implementation of effective countermeasures.

著者

Makoto Hasegawa Michio Murakami Shuhei Nomura Yoshitake Takebayashi Masaharu Tsubokura

出版者

Tohoku University Medical Press

雑誌

The Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine (ISSN:00408727)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.248, no.2, pp.115-123, 2019 (Released:2019-06-26)

参考文献数

35

被引用文献数

8

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After Fukushima disaster in 2011, the health status of the region’s residents deteriorated. We analyzed the health status, care needs, and access to health services among evacuees and non-evacuees using healthcare expenditure (for self-employed and unemployed individuals aged < 75 years) and long-term care expenditure (mainly for individuals aged ≥ 65 years). Fukushima Prefecture was divided into four areas according to their evacuation status: non-EOAs (municipalities that did not include evacuation order areas (EOAs)); EOAs/non-EOAs (municipalities that included both EOAs and non-EOAs); short-term EOAs (municipalities where the EOA designation was lifted in most areas by fiscal year (FY) 2011); and long-term EOAs (municipalities where most EOA designations remained in place until the end of FY 2015). Increases in expenditure on healthcare and long-term care per capita in short-term and long-term EOAs were greater in FY 2015 than the average values in FYs 2008-2010. The increases in expenditure were higher in short-term and long-term EOAs than those in non-EOAs and EOAs/non-EOAs. The increases in dental health expenditure were attributed to enhanced accessibility to dental health facilities. Furthermore, the evacuations contributed to increases in healthcare and long-term care expenditure, independent of aging and improved accessibly to health facilities. Possible explanations for these increases include the poor health status of the evacuees following the evacuations, reduced availability of informal care provided by family members and neighbors, and reduced patient copayments. The findings highlight the necessity of health promotion among evacuees.

著者

Yui Yumiya Michio Murakami Yoshitake Takebayashi Satoshi Suzuki Tetsuya Ohira

出版者

Tohoku University Medical Press

雑誌

The Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine (ISSN:00408727)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.248, no.4, pp.261-272, 2019 (Released:2019-08-22)

参考文献数

28

被引用文献数

6

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After the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, there was confusion among the public caused by uncoordinated information about radiation provided by diverse channels. We explored the association between information sources regarding reconstruction progress after the disaster and mental fatigue in Fukushima. We used data from the annual public opinion survey by the Fukushima Prefectural Government on its policies from 2013 to 2015, which contained survey responses from 1,300 community residents randomly selected from the 28 municipalities in the Fukushima Prefecture. The survey contained a question assessing mental fatigue: “How often do you usually feel mentally tired or depressed?” In total, 2,130 participants (758 participants in 2013, 699 participants in 2014, and 673 participants in 2015) were analyzed. The respondents were classified as two categories, “high mental fatigue” and “low mental fatigue,” based on their responses to this question. Overall, the proportion of participants with high mental fatigue was 13.2%. There was no association between the year of survey or occupation and high mental fatigue. Cluster analysis was performed to classify information sources. Then, we conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the associations between clusters of information sources and high mental fatigue. We found that unreliable information sources, such as “Internet” and “a combination of TV, radio, and word of mouth,” were significantly associated with high mental fatigue, compared with reliable information sources, such as “municipal public relations in addition to major media (newspaper, TV, and radio).” These findings provide important insights into how information sources affect mental fatigue following a disaster.