Setou Noriko, Takebayashi Yui, Kobayashi Tomoyuki, Nihonmatsu Naoto, Matsui Yutaka, Maeda Masaharu
Department of Disaster Psychiatry Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine Fukushima Japan.
Radiation Medical Science Center for the Fukushima Health Management Survey Fukushima Medical University Fukushima Japan.
PCN Rep. 2025 Jan 23;4(1):e70049. doi: 10.1002/pcn5.70049. eCollection 2025 Mar.
After the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, several municipal offices were forced to evacuate, and municipal public employees (MPEs) had to perform many administrative tasks related to the disaster. Typhoons and the COVID-19 pandemic also affected the area afterwards. We conducted a survey for MPEs to investigate the mental health impacts and related factors.
This survey was conducted in the 10th year after the accident. Participants were MPEs working in the severely affected areas. We used a self-administered questionnaire that included participants' psychological distress (K6), experience during/after the disaster, job-related stress, current problems, and the impacts of subsequent disasters. Based on K6 total scores, we analyzed factors related to mental health and the current problems among high-risk MPEs.
Of all the 775 participants, the number of high-risk MPEs was 101 (13.0%) and many of those had comorbid suicide risk. Factors related to high-score K6 were some individual-related stress factors, including male and younger people, and some job-related stress factors, including unaccustomed work and uncertainty about the future. The mental health status of MPEs in areas severely affected by the disaster has remained very serious more than 10 years later.
The problems and processes caused by the nuclear disaster, such as long-term evacuation, were very specific compared to those of natural disasters. Compared to affected residents, MPEs could be more severely affected by the disasters over the long term. We consider it important to develop a mental health care system to prepare for future disasters.
2011年福岛核事故后，多个市政办公室被迫撤离，市政公职人员不得不执行许多与灾害相关的行政任务。台风和新冠疫情随后也对该地区产生了影响。我们对市政公职人员进行了一项调查，以研究心理健康影响及相关因素。
本次调查在事故发生后的第10年进行。参与者为在受灾严重地区工作的市政公职人员。我们使用了一份自填式问卷，内容包括参与者的心理困扰（K6量表）、灾害期间/之后的经历、工作相关压力、当前问题以及后续灾害的影响。基于K6量表总分，我们分析了高风险市政公职人员心理健康及当前问题的相关因素。
在所有775名参与者中，高风险市政公职人员有101名（13.0%），其中许多人存在自杀风险合并症。与K6高分相关的因素包括一些个人相关压力因素，如男性和年轻人，以及一些工作相关压力因素，如工作不习惯和未来不确定性。灾害严重影响地区的市政公职人员心理健康状况在10多年后仍然非常严峻。
与自然灾害相比，核灾难造成的问题和过程，如长期撤离，非常特殊。与受灾居民相比，市政公职人员可能在长期内受到灾害的影响更严重。我们认为建立一个心理健康护理系统以应对未来灾害很重要。
