Life as an evacuee after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident is a cause of polycythemia: the Fukushima Health Management Survey

BMC Public Health

Masafumi Abe^1,10  Kenji Kamiya⁷  Shunichi Yamashita⁸  Seiji Yasumura^1,10  Kotaro Ozasa^1,11  Gen Kobashi¹  Atsushi Takahashi²  Hitoshi Suzuki⁴  Yukihiko Kawasaki⁹  Hiroaki Satoh⁵  Akira Ohtsuru³  Mitsuaki Hosoya⁹  Tetsuya Ohira⁶  Akira Sakai^1,10 

[1] Department of Planning and Management, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Chiba, Japan;Department of Gastroenterology and Rheumatology, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, Fukushima, Japan;Department of Radiation Health Management, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, Fukushima, Japan;Department of Cardiology and Hematology, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, Fukushima, Japan;Department of Nephrology, Hypertension, Diabetology, and Endocrinology, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, Fukushima, Japan;Department of Epidemiology, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, Fukushima, Japan;Department of Experimental Oncology, Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan;Japan and Atomic Bomb Disease Institute, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan;Department of Pediatrics, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, Fukushima, Japan;Radiation Medical Science Center for the Fukushima Health Management Survey, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, Fukushima, Japan;Department of Epidemiology, Radiation Effects Research Foundation, Hiroshima, Japan

关键词: The Fukushima Health Management Survey;    Lifestyle-related disease;    Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident;    Polycythemia;    Evacuee;   

Others  :  1091325
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-14-1318

 received in 2014-05-27, accepted in 2014-12-15,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

The 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.

Methods

Subjects 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.

Results

First, 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.

Conclusions

To 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.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Sakai et al.; licensee BioMed Central.

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