Department of Metabolism and Endocrinology, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine.
Radiation Medical Science Center for the Fukushima Health Management Survey, Fukushima Medical University.
J Epidemiol. 2022 Jun 5;32(6):277-282. doi: 10.2188/jea.JE20200267. Epub 2021 Jun 22.
The Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster forced the evacuation of residents and led to many changes in lifestyle for the evacuees. The Comprehensive Health Check was implemented to support the prevention of lifestyle-related disease and we analyzed the effect of prolonged evacuation (average of 3.0 years) on the new onset of hyper-LDL cholesterolemia.
The study participants were Japanese adults living near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture. Annual health checkups focusing on metabolic syndromes were conducted for persons ≥40 years by the Specific Health Checkup. Based on data from annual checkups from 2011 or 2012, we followed 18,670 participants without hyper-LDL cholesterolemia who underwent at least one other annual checkup during 2013-2015.
We found that the new onset of hyper-LDL cholesterolemia was 31% higher in evacuees than in non-evacuees. Evacuees had a significantly higher prevalence of obesity, hypertension, and diabetes, and higher frequency of weight change. Furthermore, logistic regression model analysis showed that the evacuation was significantly associated with the new onset of hyper-LDL cholesterolemia after adjusting age, gender, body mass index, smoking habit, alcohol consumption, diabetes, weight change, sleep deprivation, and exercise.
The findings of the present study suggest that prolonged evacuation after a disaster is a risk factor for the new onset of hyper-LDL cholesterolemia, and lead to an increase in cardiovascular disease. It is therefore important to follow-up evacuees and recommend lifestyle changes where necessary.
东日本大地震和福岛第一核电站核灾难迫使居民撤离，并导致灾民的生活方式发生了许多变化。实施了全面健康检查，以支持预防与生活方式相关的疾病，我们分析了长期撤离（平均 3.0 年）对新发性高 LDL 胆固醇血症的影响。
研究参与者是居住在福岛县福岛第一核电站附近的日本成年人。特定健康检查对≥40 岁的人进行了年度代谢综合征健康检查。根据 2011 年或 2012 年的年度检查数据，我们随访了 18670 名无高 LDL 胆固醇血症且在 2013-2015 年期间至少进行了一次其他年度检查的参与者。
我们发现，撤离者中新发性高 LDL 胆固醇血症的发生率比非撤离者高 31%。撤离者肥胖、高血压和糖尿病的患病率明显较高，体重变化的频率也较高。此外，逻辑回归模型分析表明，在调整年龄、性别、体重指数、吸烟习惯、饮酒、糖尿病、体重变化、睡眠不足和运动后，撤离与新发性高 LDL 胆固醇血症显著相关。
本研究的结果表明，灾难后长期撤离是新发性高 LDL 胆固醇血症的一个危险因素，并导致心血管疾病的增加。因此，对撤离者进行随访并在必要时建议改变生活方式非常重要。
