title: Blood Pressure Elevation Lasting Longer Than 1 Year Among Public Employees After the Great East Japan Earthquake: The Watari Study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We have previously reported that the public employees of Watari town showed significantly greater elevations in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure than the general population 4-8 months after the Great East Japan Earthquake, which occurred on 11 March 2011. To examine whether these differences persisted thereafter, we conducted a follow-up study for both the public employees and the general population of Watari town over 1 year.
  
  
  METHODS
  Among 225 public employees and 1232 individuals from the general population of the town who received consecutive annual health checkups from 2010 to 2012, 89 pairs were matched for age and sex according to a propensity score.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The baseline characteristics (predisaster) did not statistically differ between the paired groups. The public employees showed significantly higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure in 2011 (postdisaster) compared with the general population (129.8 ± 14.0/78.0 ± 11.7 vs. 117.0 ± 14.4/71.6 ± 11.4 mm Hg, P < 0.001 for both). Furthermore, the systolic blood pressure of the public employees remained significantly higher than that of the general population in 2012 (125.3 ± 16.0 vs. 119.9 ± 15.5 mm Hg, P = 0.023).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Prolonged blood pressure elevation among the public employees was observed for more than 1 year after the disaster, suggesting a need for close blood pressure monitoring of public employees engaged in long-term disaster relief operations.
authors: Division of Hypertension and Research Center for Lifestyle-related Disease, Tohoku Rosai Hospital, Sendai, Japan.
authors: Satoshi
authors: S
authors: Konno
authors: Division of Hypertension and Research Center for Lifestyle-related Disease, Tohoku Rosai Hospital, Sendai, Japan. munakata@tohokuh.rofuku.go.jp.
authors: Masanori
authors: M
authors: Munakata
mesh_terms: D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination; D004190:Disasters; D055866:Earthquakes; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009017:Morbidity / Q000639:trends; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015996:Survival Rate / Q000639:trends; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: Great East Japan Earthquake; blood pressure; disaster hypertension; hypertension; public employees; workload.