title: Radiation-related anxiety among public health nurses in the Fukushima Prefecture after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station: a cross-sectional study.
abstract: In Japan, public health nurses (PHNs) play important roles in managing the health of local residents, especially after a disaster. In this study, we assessed radiation anxiety and the stress processing capacity of PHNs in the Fukushima Prefecture in Japan, after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS).
  
  
  
  We conducted a questionnaire survey among the PHNs (n=430) in July of 2015 via postal mail. The questions included demographic factors (sex, age and employment position), knowledge about radiation, degree of anxiety about radiation at the time of the FDNPS accident (and at present), by asking them to answer questions about radiation and the Sense of Coherence-13 (SOC-13). We classified the low and high levels of anxiety by asking them to answer questions about radiation, and compared the anxiety-negative (-) group with the anxiety-positive (+) group.
  
  
  
  Of the PHNs, 269 (62.6%) were classified in the anxiety (-) group and 161 (37.4%) were in the anxiety (+) group. When the multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted, the PHNs at the time of the accident (OR: 2.37, p=0.007), current general anxieties about radiation (OR: 3.56, p<0.001), current possession of materials to obtain knowledge about radiation (OR: 2.11, p=0.006) and knowledge of the childhood thyroid cancer increase after the Chernobyl accident (OR: 1.69, p=0.035) were significantly associated with anxiety after the FDNPS accident. The mean SOC-13 was 43.0±7.7, with no significant difference between the anxiety (-) group and anxiety (+) group (p=0.47).
  
  
  
  Our study suggested that anxiety about radiation was associated with materials and knowledge about radiation in the PHNs in the Fukushima Prefecture 4 years after the FDNPS accident. It is important for PHNs to obtain knowledge and teaching materials about radiation, and radiation education programmes for PHNs must be established in areas that have nuclear facilities.
authors: Department of Health Sciences, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki, Japan.|Education Center for Disaster Medicine, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Japan.
authors: Koji
authors: K
authors: Yoshida
authors: Department of Global Health, Medicine and Welfare, Atomic Bomb Disease Institute, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan.
authors: Makiko
authors: M
authors: Orita
authors: Center for Integrated Science and Humanities, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Japan.
authors: Aya
authors: A
authors: Goto
authors: Education Center for Disaster Medicine, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Japan.
authors: Atsushi
authors: A
authors: Kumagai
authors: Education Center for Disaster Medicine, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Japan.
authors: Kiyotaka
authors: K
authors: Yasui
authors: Department of Radiation Health Management, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, Fukushima, Japan.
authors: Akira
authors: A
authors: Ohtsuru
authors: Division of Promotion of Collaborative Research on Radiation and Environment Health Effects, Atomic Bomb Disease Institute, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan.
authors: Naomi
authors: N
authors: Hayashida
authors: Department of Radioisotope Medicine, Atomic Bomb Disease Institute, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan.
authors: Takashi
authors: T
authors: Kudo
authors: Department of Radiation Medical Sciences, Atomic Bomb Disease Institute, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan.
authors: Shunichi
authors: S
authors: Yamashita
authors: Department of Global Health, Medicine and Welfare, Atomic Bomb Disease Institute, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan.
authors: Noboru
authors: N
authors: Takamura
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety / Q000209:etiology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004190:Disasters; D005260:Female; D062406:Fukushima Nuclear Accident; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D064689:Nurses, Public Health / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology*; D011361:Professional Competence; D000069079:Radiation Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects; D011832:Radiation Injuries; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station; Sense of Coherence-13; anxiety; public health nurse; radiation