Abstract
BackgroundTo examine changes in psychological distress prevalence among pregnant women in Miyagi Prefecture, which was directly affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, and compare it with the other, less damaged areas of Japan.MethodsThis study was conducted in conjunction with the Japan Environment and Children`s Study. We examined 76,152 pregnant women including 8270 in Miyagi Regional Center and 67,882 in 13 other regional centers from the all-birth fixed data of the Japan Environment and Children’s Study. We then compared the prevalence and risk of distress in women in Miyagi Regional Center and women in the 13 regional centers for 3 years after the disaster.ResultsWomen in the Miyagi Regional Center suffered more psychological distress than those in the 13 regional centers: OR 1.38 (95% CI, 1.03–1.87) to 1.92 (95% CI, 1.42–2.60). Additionally, women in the inland area had a consistently higher prevalence of psychological distress compared to those from the 13 regional centers: OR 1.67 (95% CI, 1.18–2.38) to 2.19 (95% CI, 1.60–2.99).ConclusionsThe lack of pre-disaster data in the Japan Environment and Children’s Study made it impossible to compare the incidence of psychological distress before and after the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. However, 3 years after the Great East Japan Earthquake, the prevalence of pregnant women with psychological distress did not improve in Miyagi Regional Center. Further, the prevalence of mental illness in inland areas was consistently higher than that in the 13 regional centers after the disaster.
Highlights
To examine changes in psychological distress prevalence among pregnant women in Miyagi Prefecture, which was directly affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, and compare it with the other, less damaged areas of Japan
Study design This study was a part of the Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS), which was initiated by the Ministry of the Environment in Japan as a nationwide prospective birth cohort study to investigate the association between environmental factors and children’s health and development
Women and their families participated between January 2011 and May 2014 via 15 regional centers (RC) assented to the JECS (Fig. 1)
Summary
To examine changes in psychological distress prevalence among pregnant women in Miyagi Prefecture, which was directly affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, and compare it with the other, less damaged areas of Japan. In Miyagi Prefecture, 10,565 and 1220 people were dead or missing, respectively, and 238, 119 houses were completely or partially destroyed [2]. This was Japan’s largest earthquake and the fourth largest in the world since 1900, according to the United States Geological Survey [3]. The mental impact on postnatal babies is more closely related to anxiety during pregnancy than postpartum anxiety and depression. Fetal exposure to long-term maternal cortisol, which is over-secreted due to stress, may be a contributing factor to the mental impact on post-natal babies [10]
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