title: Design of the Nationwide Nursery School Survey on Child Health Throughout the Great East Japan Earthquake.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Great East Japan Earthquake inflicted severe damage on the Pacific coastal areas of northeast Japan. Although possible health impacts on aged or handicapped populations have been highlighted, little is known about how the serious disaster affected preschool children's health. We conducted a nationwide nursery school survey to investigate preschool children's physical development and health status throughout the disaster.
  
  
  METHODS
  The survey was conducted from September to December 2012. We mailed three kinds of questionnaires to nursery schools in all 47 prefectures in Japan. Questionnaire "A" addressed nursery school information, and questionnaires "B1" and "B2" addressed individuals' data. Our targets were children who were born from April 2, 2004, to April 1, 2005 (those who did not experience the disaster during their preschool days) and children who were born from April 2, 2006, to April 1, 2007 (those who experienced the disaster during their preschool days). The questionnaire inquired about disaster experiences, anthropometric measurements, and presence of diseases.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In total, 3624 nursery schools from all 47 prefectures participated in the survey. We established two nationwide retrospective cohorts of preschool children; 53,747 children who were born from April 2, 2004, to April 1, 2005, and 69,004 children who were born from April 2, 2006, to April 1, 2007. Among the latter cohort, 1003 were reported to have specific personal experiences with the disaster.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  With the large dataset, we expect to yield comprehensive study results about preschool children's physical development and health status throughout the disaster.
authors.affiliation: Department of Disaster Public Health, International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS), Tohoku University.
authors.forename: Hiroko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Matsubara
authors.forename: Mami
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ishikuro
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kikuya
authors.forename: Shoichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chida
authors.forename: Mitsuaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hosoya
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ono
authors.forename: Noriko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.forename: Susumu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yokoya
authors.forename: Toshiaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Tsuyoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Isojima
authors.forename: Zentaro
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yamagata
authors.forename: Soichiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Shinichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kuriyama
authors.forename: Shigeo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kure
mesh_terms: D002657:Child Development; D000067576:Child Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004190:Disasters; D055866:Earthquakes; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012578:Schools, Nursery