Trajectory of evacuees’ health condition after the Great East Japan Earthquake: Health survey of residents in prefabricated temporary housing and private rented housing in the Miyagi prefecture

• Published in: Nihon Koshu Eisei Zasshi(JAPANESE JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH) Vol. 67; no. 1; pp. 26 - 32
• Main Authors: KUSAMA, Taro, AIDA, Jun, HIGASHI, Daisuke, SATO, Yaeko, ONODERA, Tamotsu, SUGIYAMA, Kemmyo, TSUBOYA, Toru, TAKAHASHI, Tatsuya, OSAKA, Ken
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: Japan Japanese Society of Public Health 2020
• Subjects: public disaster housing; Self-rated health; Temporary housing; The Great East Japan Earthquake; Trajectory; public disaster housing; Temporary housing; Self-rated health; The Great East Japan Earthquake; Trajectory
• ISSN: 0546-1766; 2187-8986
• DOI: 10.11236/jph.67.1_26

Objectives The Great East Japan Earthquake occurred in March 2011. As of November 2018, 1100 survivors of its still lived in the Miyagi prefecture's temporary housing. Previous studies revealed that the residential relocation to temporary housing from their own houses due to damages caused by the earthquake exacerbated the evacuees’ health. However, there is a lack of long-term observation of the trajectory of their health conditions in temporary housing. To the best of our knowledge, there is no study involving residents in public disaster housing. The aim of the present study was to reveal the trajectory of health conditions of residents of temporary and public disaster housing.Method This repeated cross-sectional study included residents aged 20 years and older, residing in private rented housing, prefabricated temporary housing, and public disaster housing. The survey period lasted for six years (2011 to 2017). We used self-rated health as the dependent variable, the year of the survey and type of house as independent variables, and sex and age as covariates. Adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were calculated using multivariate logistic regression analysis.Results In total, 179,255 participants were included in this study. The average age was the highest among the residents of public disaster housing: 63.0 years in 2017. The number of residents who reported poor self-rated health declined yearly of private rented housing, but not of prefabricated temporary housing. The highest number of residents reporting poor self-rated health was from public disaster housing, compared to other temporary housing. Multivariate analysis showed that self-rated health improved in recent years (P for trend <0.001). Compared to the residents of private rented housing, those from public disaster housing reported poorer health conditions (aOR, 1.20 ; 95% CI, 1.15-1.27), although no significant difference was observed among the residents of prefabricated housing.Conclusion Health conditions of residents of temporary housing and public disaster housing tended to improve on a yearly basis. Residents of public disaster housing reported poor health. Therefore, monitoring and adequate intervention should be offered.