TY - JOUR
T1 - The effects of living environment on disaster workers
T2 - A one-year longitudinal study
AU - Nagamine, Masanori
AU - Harada, Nahoko
AU - Shigemura, Jun
AU - Dobashi, Kosuke
AU - Yoshiga, Makiko
AU - Esaki, Naoki
AU - Tanaka, Miyuki
AU - Tanichi, Masaaki
AU - Yoshino, Aihide
AU - Shimizu, Kunio
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI Grant Number 26461779.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 The Author(s).
PY - 2016/10/21
Y1 - 2016/10/21
N2 - Background: Defense Force workers engaged in disaster relief activities might suffer from strong psychological stress due to the tasks that they had been involved. We evaluated how living environments, work environments, and individual factors psychologically affect those who engaged in disaster relief activities. Method: Data generated with 1506 personnel engaged in the Great East Japan Earthquake relief activity were analyzed. Those who scored ≥25 points on the Impact of Events Scale-Revised and the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) were allocated into the high post-traumatic stress response (high-PTSR) group, and the high general psychological distress (high-GPD) group, respectively. Results: The multiple logistic regression analysis extracted living environment (camping within the shelter sites) as the significant risk factor for both high-PTSR (OR=3.39, 95% CI 2.04-5.64, p<0.001) and high-GPD (OR=3.35, 95% CI 1.77-6.34, p<0.001) groups. Conclusion: It is desirable for disaster workers to have a living environment in which they can keep an appropriate distance from the victims.
AB - Background: Defense Force workers engaged in disaster relief activities might suffer from strong psychological stress due to the tasks that they had been involved. We evaluated how living environments, work environments, and individual factors psychologically affect those who engaged in disaster relief activities. Method: Data generated with 1506 personnel engaged in the Great East Japan Earthquake relief activity were analyzed. Those who scored ≥25 points on the Impact of Events Scale-Revised and the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) were allocated into the high post-traumatic stress response (high-PTSR) group, and the high general psychological distress (high-GPD) group, respectively. Results: The multiple logistic regression analysis extracted living environment (camping within the shelter sites) as the significant risk factor for both high-PTSR (OR=3.39, 95% CI 2.04-5.64, p<0.001) and high-GPD (OR=3.35, 95% CI 1.77-6.34, p<0.001) groups. Conclusion: It is desirable for disaster workers to have a living environment in which they can keep an appropriate distance from the victims.
KW - Disaster workers
KW - Great East Japan Earthquake
KW - Living environment
KW - Post-traumatic stress response
KW - Psychological distress
KW - Risk factors
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U2 - 10.1186/s12888-016-1058-4
DO - 10.1186/s12888-016-1058-4
M3 - Article
C2 - 27769203
AN - SCOPUS:84992017365
SN - 1471-244X
VL - 16
JO - BMC Psychiatry
JF - BMC Psychiatry
IS - 1
M1 - 358
ER -
