• Tetsuya Ohira, Mitsuaki Hosoya, Seiji Yasumura, Hiroaki Satoh, Hitoshi Suzuki, Akira Sakai, Akira Ohtsuru, Yukihiko Kawasaki, Atsushi Takahashi, Kotaro Ozasa, Gen Kobashi, Kenji Kamiya, Shunichi Yamashita, Masafumi Abe, and Fukushima Health Management Survey Group.
• Radiation Medical Science Center for the Fukushima Health Management Survey, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Japan; Department of Epidemiology, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, Fukushima, Japan. Electronic address: teoohira@fmu.ac.jp.
• Am J Prev Med. 2016 May 1; 50 (5): 553-560.

IntroductionThe Great East Japan Earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011, with a nuclear accident subsequently occurring at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The government ordered a mandatory evacuation from the high radioactive concentration area in Fukushima, which might have forced many evacuees to change particular aspects of their lifestyles. This study assessed the hypothesis that mean body weight and the proportion of overweight/obese individuals would increase among evacuees after versus before the disaster.MethodsA longitudinal study examined data collected from 41,633 Japanese participants (mean age, 67 years) sourced from general health checkups conducted in 13 communities between 2008 and 2010. Follow-up examinations were conducted from June 2011 through March 2013.ResultsA total of 27,486 participants (12,432 men and 15,054 women; follow-up proportion, 66%) received follow-up examinations after the disaster, with an average follow-up of 1.6 years. Mean body weight significantly increased in both evacuees (n=9,671) and non-evacuees (n=17,815) after the disaster, with greater changes in body weight among evacuees than non-evacuees (+1.2 kg vs +0.3 kg, p<0.001). The proportion of overweight/obese people also increased among evacuees after the disaster, and evacuation was associated with an increased risk of being overweight, despite adjustments for confounding variables. The proportions of overweight evacuees before and after the disaster were 31.8% and 39.4%, respectively, whereas proportions among non-evacuees were 28.3% and 30.3%, respectively.ConclusionsBody weight and the proportion of overweight/obese people increased among residents, especially evacuees, in the evacuation zone of Fukushima prefecture after the Great East Japan Earthquake.Copyright © 2016 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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