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Occupational and environmental medicine
Research
Non-communicable diseases in decontamination workers in areas affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster: a retrospective observational study
  1. Toyoaki Sawano1,
  2. Masaharu Tsubokura2,
  3. Akihiko Ozaki1,
  4. Claire Leppold3,
  5. Shuhei Nomura4,
  6. Yuki Shimada5,
  7. Sae Ochi6,
  8. Manabu Tsukada1,
  9. Tsuyoshi Nemoto7,
  10. Shigeaki Kato8,
  11. Yukio Kanazawa2,
  12. Hiromichi Ohira1
  1. 1Department of Surgery, Minamisoma Municipal General Hospital, Minamisoma, Fukushima, Japan
  2. 2Department of Radiation Protection, Minamisoma Municipal General Hospital, Minamisoma, Fukushima, Japan
  3. 3Department of Research, Minamisoma Municipal General Hospital, Minamisoma, Fukushima, Japan
  4. 4Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
  5. 5Department of Neurosurgery, Minamisoma Municipal General Hospital, Minamisoma, Fukushima, Japan
  6. 6Department of Internal Medicine, Soma Central Hospital, Soma, Fukushima, Japan
  7. 7Department of Home Medical Care, Minamisoma Municipal General Hospital, Minamisoma, Fukushima, Japan
  8. 8Research Institute of Innovative Medicine, Jyoban Hospital, Iwaki, Fukushima, Japan
  1. Correspondence to Dr Toyoaki Sawano; toyoakisawano{at}gmail.com

Abstract

Objectives To assess the prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and whether NCDs were treated or not, among hospitalised decontamination workers who moved to radio-contaminated areas after Japan's 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster.

Methods We retrospectively extracted records of decontamination workers admitted to Minamisoma Municipal General Hospital between 1 June 2012 and 31 August 2015, from hospital records. We investigated the incidence of underlying NCDs such as hypertension, dyslipidaemia and diabetes among the decontamination workers, and their treatment status, in addition to the reasons for their hospital admission.

Results A total of 113 decontamination workers were admitted to the hospital (112 male patients, median age of 54 years (age range: 18–69 years)). In terms of the demographics of underlying NCDs in this population, 57 of 72 hypertensive patients (79.2%), 37 of 45 dyslipidaemic patients (82.2%) and 18 of 27 hyperglycaemic patients (66.7%) had not been treated for their NCDs before admission to the hospital.

Conclusions A high burden of underlying NCDs was found in hospitalised decontamination workers in Fukushima. Managing underlying diseases such as hypertension, hyperlipidaemia and diabetes mellitus is essential among this population.

  • OCCUPATIONAL & INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE
  • PUBLIC HEALTH
  • SOCIAL MEDICINE

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2016-013885

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors All authors conceptualised and designed the study. TS collected the data. TS, MT, AO, CL, SN and SK interpreted the data. SN made the figures. TS wrote the manuscript, and all the authors contributed to making critical revisions for improving the intellectual content of the manuscript.

    • Funding This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Ethics approval Minamisoma Municipal General Hospital Institutional Review Board.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement No additional data are available.