title: Anxiety, distress and anger among British nationals in Japan following the Fukushima nuclear accident.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan caused a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To quantify emotional responses among British nationals in Japan and to assess whether perceptions about the incident or accessing information about it were associated with responses.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 284 participants randomly selected from official records completed a survey that included instruments to measure emotional responses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In total, 16% met the criteria for distress, 29.7% reported high anxiety relating to the incident and 30.4% reported high anger. Perceptions that strongly predicted these outcomes included feeling uncertain, being unable to rule out harmful exposure, and believing that exposure would have severe or hidden health effects or be difficult to detect. Using information sources was associated with higher emotional outcome, particularly for sources perceived to have low credibility.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Reducing uncertainty and improving the credibility of information is essential in reducing the psychological impact of radiological disasters.
authors.affiliation: King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Psychological Medicine, Weston Education Centre (PO62), Cutcombe Road, London SE5 9RJ, UK. gideon.rubin@kcl.ac.uk
authors.forename: G James
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Rubin
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Amlôt
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wessely
authors.forename: Neil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Greenberg
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000786:Anger; D001007:Anxiety / Q000208:ethnology*; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D062406:Fukushima Nuclear Accident; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010465:Perception; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000208:ethnology*; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000208:ethnology; D055815:Young Adult