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The Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster: a Compilation of Published Literature on Health Needs and Relief Activities, March 2011-September 2012

Objective To provide an overview of the health needs following the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster and the lessons identified. Methods The relevant of peer review and grey literature articles in English and Japanese, and books in Japanese, published from March 2011 to September 2012 were search...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ochi, Sae, Murray, Virginia, Hodgson, Susan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3682758/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23787732
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/currents.dis.771beae7d8f41c31cd91e765678c005d
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author Ochi, Sae
Murray, Virginia
Hodgson, Susan
author_facet Ochi, Sae
Murray, Virginia
Hodgson, Susan
author_sort Ochi, Sae
collection PubMed
description Objective To provide an overview of the health needs following the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster and the lessons identified. Methods The relevant of peer review and grey literature articles in English and Japanese, and books in Japanese, published from March 2011 to September 2012 were searched. Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, and HMIC were searched for journal articles in English, CiNii for those in Japanese, and Amazon.co.jp. for books. Descriptions of the health needs at the time of the disaster were identified using search terms and relevant articles were reviewed. Findings 85 English articles, 246 Japanese articles and 13 books were identified, the majority of which were experience/activity reports. Regarding health care needs, chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes were reported to be the greatest burden from the early stages of the disaster. Loss of medication and medical records appeared to worsen the situation. Many sub-acute symptoms were attributed to the contaminated sludge of the tsunamis and the poor living environment at the evacuation centres. Particularly vulnerable groups were identified as the elderly, those with mental health illnesses and the disabled. Although the response of the rescue activities was prompt, it sometimes failed to meet the on-site needs due to the lack of communication and coordination. Conclusion The lessons identified from this mega-disaster highlighted the specific health needs of the vulnerable populations, particularly the elderly and those with non-communicable diseases. Further research is needed so that the lessons identified can be incorporated into future contingency plans in Japan and elsewhere.
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spelling pubmed-36827582013-06-19 The Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster: a Compilation of Published Literature on Health Needs and Relief Activities, March 2011-September 2012 Ochi, Sae Murray, Virginia Hodgson, Susan PLoS Curr Research Article Objective To provide an overview of the health needs following the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster and the lessons identified. Methods The relevant of peer review and grey literature articles in English and Japanese, and books in Japanese, published from March 2011 to September 2012 were searched. Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, and HMIC were searched for journal articles in English, CiNii for those in Japanese, and Amazon.co.jp. for books. Descriptions of the health needs at the time of the disaster were identified using search terms and relevant articles were reviewed. Findings 85 English articles, 246 Japanese articles and 13 books were identified, the majority of which were experience/activity reports. Regarding health care needs, chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes were reported to be the greatest burden from the early stages of the disaster. Loss of medication and medical records appeared to worsen the situation. Many sub-acute symptoms were attributed to the contaminated sludge of the tsunamis and the poor living environment at the evacuation centres. Particularly vulnerable groups were identified as the elderly, those with mental health illnesses and the disabled. Although the response of the rescue activities was prompt, it sometimes failed to meet the on-site needs due to the lack of communication and coordination. Conclusion The lessons identified from this mega-disaster highlighted the specific health needs of the vulnerable populations, particularly the elderly and those with non-communicable diseases. Further research is needed so that the lessons identified can be incorporated into future contingency plans in Japan and elsewhere. Public Library of Science 2013-05-13 /pmc/articles/PMC3682758/ /pubmed/23787732 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/currents.dis.771beae7d8f41c31cd91e765678c005d Text en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Ochi, Sae
Murray, Virginia
Hodgson, Susan
The Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster: a Compilation of Published Literature on Health Needs and Relief Activities, March 2011-September 2012
title The Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster: a Compilation of Published Literature on Health Needs and Relief Activities, March 2011-September 2012
title_full The Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster: a Compilation of Published Literature on Health Needs and Relief Activities, March 2011-September 2012
title_fullStr The Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster: a Compilation of Published Literature on Health Needs and Relief Activities, March 2011-September 2012
title_full_unstemmed The Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster: a Compilation of Published Literature on Health Needs and Relief Activities, March 2011-September 2012
title_short The Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster: a Compilation of Published Literature on Health Needs and Relief Activities, March 2011-September 2012
title_sort great east japan earthquake disaster: a compilation of published literature on health needs and relief activities, march 2011-september 2012
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3682758/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23787732
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/currents.dis.771beae7d8f41c31cd91e765678c005d
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