Abstract
ABSTRACT Background: As a result of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident, many residents evacuated and were exposed to changes in their living environment and socioeconomic status, and to persistent stressors. Past studies have suggested the potential for these circumstances to contribute to long-term changes to population health. Objective: The objective of this study was to gain a better understanding of long-term health effects of evacuation, by evaluating the risk of non-communicable diseases among evacuees from Minamisoma City (one of the closest municipalities to the power plant) until 2017. Methods: The study evaluated data from annual health check-ups for residents aged 40–74 years covered by National Health Insurance (who are largely self-employed) from 2010 to 2017 administered by Minamisoma City. Diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension were defined from the results of blood sampling. Annual changes in age-adjusted prevalence were estimated by evacuation scenario. We also performed an inverse-probability weighting (IPW) analysis to adjust for baseline covariates in 2010 and estimated the differences in the risk of diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension by evacuation scenario as of the 2017 health check-up in reference to the no-evacuation group. Results: A total of 1,837 individuals were considered in this study. Regardless of evacuation scenario, there was statistical evidence suggesting an upward and a downward trend in diabetes and hypertension from 2010 to 2017, respectively, while hyperlipidemia showed no remarkable change. IPW analyses demonstrated that disease risks in 2017 did not differ significantly among people with different evacuation scenarios. Conclusions: Region-specific factors played an important role in the health effects of the evacuation. Our findings have important implications for the need of an assessment of the health effects of evacuations in more localized manner. Further research in this area will strengthen the communities’ preparedness for future disasters that require mass evacuation.
Highlights
As a result of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident, many residents evacuated and were exposed to changes in their living environment and socio economic status, and to persistent stressors
The purpose of this study was to gain a greater understanding of any long-term health effects of evacuation in areas affected by the Fukushima nuclear accident, to provide insights that will contribute to future disaster preparedness that require mass evacuation
There were no significant differences in the crude prevalence of the diseases between those included in the analysis and those excluded in 2017, with the exception of hyperlipidemia: for diabetes, there were positive cases in 157 participants (8.55%) who were included in the study, and 288 positive cases (10.09%) in those excluded (p = 0.08, chi-squared test); for hyperlipidemia, there were 680 positive cases (39.17%) in the those included and 1,104 (44.37%) in those excluded (p < 0.01); and for hypertension there were 347 positive cases (19.98%) in those included and 544 (21.85%) in those excluded (p = 0.14)
Summary
As a result of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident, many residents evacuated and were exposed to changes in their living environment and socio economic status, and to persistent stressors. Our findings have important implications for the need of an assessment of the health effects of evacuations in more localized manner Further research in this area will strengthen the communities’ preparedness for future disasters that require mass evacuation. Continuous assessment of radiation exposure levels from the Fukushima nuclear accident by international bodies and academic researchers suggest that the doses received in the general public in the first year of the accident, and the estimates for their lifetimes, are generally low [1,2,3,4,5,6] and associated with a very low likelihood of physical health effects [7,8].
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