Comprehensive health survey of elderlies living in temporary houses after the Great East Japan Earthquake: A prospective cohort study.

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24659343
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: General internal medicine (including Psychosomatic medicine)
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: OKINAGA Shoji 東北大学, 大学病院, 准教授 (30302136)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): TSUJI Ichiro 東北大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 教授 (20171994) ; TOMITA Naoki 東北大学, 大学病院, 助教 (00552796)
• Research Collaborator: FURUKAWA Katsutoshi 東北大学, 加齢医学研究所, 准教授 (30241631)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 東日本大震災 / 災害医療 / 高齢者 / 応急仮設住宅

Outline of Final Research Achievements

A prospective cohort study was conducted to assess the health condition of elderlies living in the temporary apartments after the Great East Japan Earthquake. Participants were residents of the Karakuwa/Ooshima (K/O) area in Kesennuma city, and were compared with residents of the central urban (CU) area, the Motoyoshi (M) area and the Iwate prefecture (IP) area. Residents in the IP area shew significant better physical functions probably because they might be the population selected from the CU area as a healthy elderlies. Residents in the M area were in a depressed mood probably because they included the population of farmers who had to abandon their ancestral agricultural lands. Noteworthy is that residents of the K/O area (peninsula/island area) were significantly superior in ADL, physical strength, nutrition and moods. The analysis of this survey suggested that the mutual support system is traditionally established to prevent isolated or dependent elderlies in the K/O area.

Free Research Field

老年医学