Mental health of nurses after the Fukushima complex disaster: a narrative review

Nukui, Hiroshi; Midorikawa, Sanae; Murakami, Michio; Maeda, Masaharu; Ohtsuru, Akira

A mental health and lifestyle survey for residents in the evacuation areas was conducted by the Fukushima Health Management Survey [23] . In this survey, the K6 score was used as an index of general mental health. The proportion of people at high risk of requiring support for depressed mood and anxiety was 14.6% in 2011, 11.7% in 2012 and 9.7% in 2014 [40], compared with~7% in the evacuation areas in Miyagi and Iwate. Hence, mental health care in the evacuation area surrounding the nuclear accident is presumably needed [41] . Using the PTSD checklist (PCL) score as an index of the trauma response, 21.6% of participants required support in 2011, 17.4% in 2012, and 15.8% in 2014 [37] , compared with 12.4% in a one-year survey of firefighters who responded to terrorist attacks in the USA [42] . Ben-Ezra et al. compared the reactions of hospital nurses (n = 34) and civilians (n = 39) after this disaster, using a brief questionnaire [43] . This preliminary study suggested that nurses had a lower level of PTSD symptoms, but higher self-rated health, life satisfaction, and perceived coping, and a similar level of fear about radiation to that of civilians. Sakuma et al. also reported that the prevalence of high general psychological distress (K6 score) was higher among medical workers [mostly hospital nurses (14.5%)] and municipality officers (14.9%) than among firefighters (2.6%) at about one year after the Great East-Japan Earthquake in the coast area of Miyagi prefecture affected by the tsunami [5] .