Characteristics of pneumonia deaths after an earthquake and tsunami: an ecological study of 5.7 million participants in 131 municipalities, Japan.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

On 11 March 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake struck off Japan. Although some studies showed that the earthquake increased the risk of pneumonia death, no study reported whether and how much a tsunami increased the risk. We examined the risk for pneumonia death after the earthquake/tsunami.

Design

This is an ecological study.

Setting

Data on population and pneumonia deaths obtained from the Vital Statistics 2010 and 2012, National Census 2010 and Basic Resident Register 2010 and 2012 in Japan.

Participants

About 5.7 million participants residing in Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima Prefectures during 1 year after the disaster were targeted. All municipalities (n=131) were categorised into inland (n=93), that is, the earthquake-impacted area, and coastal

SUBMITTER: Shibata Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4769420 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature