Abstract
BackgroundThe Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster forced people to evacuate their hometowns. Many evacuees from the government-designated evacuation zone were forced to change their lifestyle, diet, exercise, and other personal habits. The Comprehensive Health Check (CHC), 1 of 4 detailed surveys of The Fukushima Health Management Survey (FHMS), was implemented to support the prevention of lifestyle-related disease. The aim of this study was to analyze changes in red blood cell count (RBC), hemoglobin (Hb) levels, and hematocrit (Ht) levels by comparing data from the medical health checkup before and after the disaster in individuals who were 40 years old or older.MethodsSubjects in this study were Japanese men and women living in the vicinity of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Fukushima prefecture. Annual health checkups with a focus on metabolic syndrome for insured persons/dependents aged 40 or older by Health Care Insurers have been conducted since 2008. All analyses in this study were limited to men and women aged 40–90 years. Changes in RBC, Hb levels, Ht levels, and prevalence of polycythemia before and after the disaster were compared.ResultsFirst, RBC, Hb, and Ht significantly increased in both men and women evacuees. The evacuation was significantly associated with increased Hb levels after adjustment for age, gender, smoking status, excess ethanol intake, BMI, and baseline Hb level (β = 0.16, p < 0.001). Furthermore, the prevalence of polycythemia stratified by smoking status or obesity also increased in the evacuee group.ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this is the first report revealing that the evacuation was associated with the risk of polycythemia. This information could be very important for periodic health checkup and lifestyle recommendations for evacuees in the future.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2458-14-1318) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
The Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster forced people to evacuate their hometowns
The Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred on 11 March 2011 and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster forced people to evacuate their hometowns with notice, caused them to change their lifestyle to fit a completely new situation, and produced anxiety about radiation
In response to concerns about the effects these factors could have on health, the Comprehensive Health Check (CHC), 1 of 4 detailed surveys of the Fukushima Health Management Survey (FHMS), was implemented to support the early detection and treatment of disease as well as the prevention of lifestyle-related diseases, such as heart disease and cerebrovascular disease
Summary
The Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster forced people to evacuate their hometowns. The Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred on 11 March 2011 and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster forced people to evacuate their hometowns with notice, caused them to change their lifestyle to fit a completely new situation, and produced anxiety about radiation. In response to concerns about the effects these factors could have on health, the Comprehensive Health Check (CHC), 1 of 4 detailed surveys of the Fukushima Health Management Survey (FHMS), was implemented to support the early detection and treatment of disease as well as the prevention of lifestyle-related diseases, such as heart disease and cerebrovascular disease. A large-scale cohort study of survivors was started in order to investigate the long-term stochastic effects of radiation. An epidemiologic study evaluating long-term radiation effects on public health was not implemented soon enough after the accident [4]
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