Factors Affecting the Sense of Coherence (SOC) for Long-term Evacuees after a Large-Scale Disaster in Japan

Disasters has been occurring frequently all over the world, and an increasing number of people have been forced to continue their evacuation life for a long time. In the aftermath of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident in Japan, some people are still unable to return to their homes due to radioactive contamination and are forced to live as evacuees for long periods of time. It is considered a serious public health issue to keep mentality healthy under the stress of living after the disaster. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the factors that affect the sense of coherence (SOC), which is considered as the ability to cope with stress and maintain health, in residents who continue to live as evacuees after a large-scale disaster. The method was a self-administered questionnaire survey of 1,602 long-term evacuees in Japan. Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted with the high and low SOC score groups as dependent variables in order to identify factors that predicted high and low SOC. The results showed that the SOC tended to decrease in the elderly and those with deteriorating mental health. On the other hand, those who were active in education and hobbies, and those who socialized with their neighbors and friends tended to have the higher SOC. In order to support residents who have been forced to continue living as evacuees for a long period of time, it is important to provide them with psychological and emotional support to prevent them from being emotionally overwhelmed, as well as living environment improvement and economic support. It was suggested that the promotion of resident-led activities that lead to mental relaxation and the introduction of stress reduction methods that can be easily adopted by residents are effective in maintaining mental health

Environmental health · Geography · Logistic regression · Mental health · Psychiatry · Health disparities and outcomes · Health, psychology, and well-being · Medicine · Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research · Psychology · Gerontology

• Disaster Victims Speak

  Fran H Norris, Melvin J Friedman et al.•Psychiatry•2002

  Add to list

• The performance of the Japanese version of the K6 and K10 in the World Mental Health Survey Japan

  Open Access•Toshi A Furukawa, Norito Kawakami et al.•International Journal of Methods…•2008

  Add to list

• Development of a short version of the sense of coherence scale for population survey

  Taisuke Togari, Yoshihiko Yamazaki et al.•Journal of Epidemiology and…•2007

  Add to list