title: Post-traumatic Stress and Growth Among Medical Student Volunteers After the March 2011 Disaster in Fukushima, Japan: Implications for Student Involvement with Future Disasters.
abstract: The March 2011 "triple disaster" (earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident) had a profound effect on northern Japan. Many medical students at Fukushima Medical University volunteered in the relief effort. We aimed to investigate the nature of students' post-disaster involvement and examine the psychological impact of their experiences using a survey containing elements from the Davidson Trauma Scale and Posttraumatic Growth Inventory. We collected 494 surveys (70 % response rate), of which 132 students (26.7 %) had volunteered. Volunteers were more likely to be older, have witnessed the disaster in person, had their hometowns affected, and had a family member or close friend injured. In the month after 3/11, volunteers were more likely to want to help, feel capable of helping, and report an increased desire to become a physician. Both in the month after 3/11 and the most recent month before the survey, there were no significant differences in distressing symptoms, such as confusion, anger, or sadness, between volunteers and non-volunteers. Volunteers reported a significantly higher level of posttraumatic growth than non-volunteers. Participating in a greater variety of volunteer activities was associated with a higher level of posttraumatic growth, particularly in the Personal Strength domain. There may be self-selection in some criteria, since students who were likely to be resistant to confusion/anxiety/sadness may have felt more capable of helping and been predisposed to volunteer. However, participation in post-disaster relief efforts did not appear to have a harmful effect on medical students, an important consideration for mobilizing volunteers after future disasters.
authors.affiliation: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.affiliation: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Phoebe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Prioleau
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Kanako
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Taku
authors.affiliation: Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Japan.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Naruse
authors.affiliation: International Exchange Affairs, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Japan.
authors.forename: Hideharu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sekine
authors.affiliation: Department of Disaster Psychiatry, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Japan.
authors.forename: Masaharu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maeda
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropsychiatry, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Japan.
authors.forename: Hirooki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yabe
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychiatry and Medical Education, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Craig
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Katz
authors.affiliation: Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Box 1055, One Gustave L. Levy Place, New York, NY, 10029, USA. robert.yanagisawa@mssm.edu.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yanagisawa
mesh_terms: D004189:Disaster Planning; D004190:Disasters; D055866:Earthquakes; D005260:Female; D062406:Fukushima Nuclear Accident; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D057192:Tsunamis; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: 3/11; Disaster mental health; Medical student volunteerism; Natural disasters; Posttraumatic growth; Posttraumatic stress response