Journal of Epidemiology

Journal of Epidemiology

Volume 27, Issue 10, October 2017, Pages 462-468
Journal of Epidemiology

Original Article
Alterations in physique among young children after the Great East Japan Earthquake: Results from a nationwide survey

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.je.2016.09.012Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • We obtained anthropometric data from 93,538 children aged 3.5–4.5 years.

  • Anthropometric data were measured before and after the Great East Japan Earthquake.

  • We compared the data in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima vs. the other prefectures.

  • Incident overweight was higher in the three prefectures than the other prefectures.

Abstract

Background

Data for earthquake-related alterations in physique among young children in developed countries is lacking. The Great East Japan Earthquake caused severe damage in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima Prefectures in northeastern Japan.

Methods

We retrospectively obtained anthropometric measurements in nursery school from 40,046 (cohort 1, historical control) and 53,492 (cohort 2) children aged 3.5–4.5 years without overweight in October 2008, and in October 2010, respectively. At the time of the earthquake in March, 2011, children in cohort 1 had already graduated from nursery school; however, children in cohort 2 were still enrolled in nursery school at this time. We compared the onset of overweight at 1 year after the baseline between children enrolled in their school located in one of the three target prefectures versus those in other prefectures using a logistic regression model, with adjustment for sex, age, history of disease, and obesity index at baseline. Overweight was defined as an obesity index of >+15%, which was calculated as (weight minus sex- and height-specific standard weight)/sex- and height-specific standard weight.

Results

The odds ratio (OR) for the onset of overweight in the three target prefectures was significant in cohort 2 (OR 1.25; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01–1.55) but not in cohort 1. When the two cohort were pooled (n = 93,538), the OR of the interaction term for school location × cohort was significant (OR 1.56; 95% CI, 1.09–2.23).

Conclusions

Incident overweight in young children was significantly more common in the three prefectures affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake than in other prefectures after the disaster.

Keywords

Earthquake
Tsunami
Physical growth
Childhood obesity

Cited by (0)

Peer review under responsibility of the Japan Epidemiological Association.