Citation

Kusama T, Aida J, Sugiyama K, Matsuyama Y, Koyama S, Sato Y, Yamamoto T, Igarashi A, Tsuboya T, Osaka K. J. Epidemiol. 2018; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Disaster Medical Science Division, Disaster Related Oral Health, International Research Institute of Disaster Science.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Japan Epidemiological Association)

DOI

10.2188/jea.JE20180080

PMID

30344193

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Although majority of survivors of the huge earthquake and tsunami evacuated to two types of temporary housings, prefabricated housing and rented housing, health effects of these different environments were unclear. We examined whether prevalent social participation in prefabricated housing brought larger health benefits than in rented housing using the largest health survey data of the disaster survivors.

METHODS: This cross-sectional study used a 2012 survey by the Miyagi Prefectural Government in which almost all of evacuees were targeted (response rate = 61.6%). Self-rated health (SRH) and psychological distress measured by K6 score were the dependent variables, and social participation was the independent variable. Odds ratios of the social participation on health variables were estimated by logistic regression models. To assess the contribution of social participation, the population attributable fraction (PAF) was estimated.

RESULTS: The participants lived in prefabricated and rented housing numbered 19,077 and 28,270, respectively. Participants in prefabricated housing had poorer SRH and K6 than those in rented housing. Social participation of prefabricated and rented housing were 38.2% and 15.4%, respectively. The absence of social participation was significantly associated with poor SRH and K6 among participants in both housing types. The PAFs of social participation with good SRH were 39.5% in prefabricated housing and 14.4% in rented housing. For K6, the PAFs were 47.1% and 19.5% in prefabricated and rented housing, respectively.

CONCLUSION: Compared to the residents in rented housing, residents in prefabricated housing had more frequent opportunities for social participation, which was associated with larger health benefits.

Language: en

Keywords

Evacuation; health condition; social participation; the Great East Japan Earthquake population attributable fraction