title: Design of the health examination survey on early childhood physical growth in the Great East Japan Earthquake affected areas.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To investigate the impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake on preschool children's physical growth in the disaster-affected areas, the three medical universities in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima Prefectures conducted a health examination survey on early childhood physical growth.
  
  
  METHODS
  The survey was conducted over a 3-year period to acquire data on children who were born in different years. Our targets were as follows: 1) children who were born between March 1, 2007 and August 31, 2007 and experienced the disaster at 43-48 months of age, 2) children who were born between March 1, 2009 and August 31, 2009 and experienced the disaster at 19-24 months of age, and 3) children who were born between June 1, 2010 and April 30, 2011 and were under 10 months of age or not born yet when the disaster occurred. We collected their health examination data from local governments in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima Prefectures. We also collected data from Aomori, Akita, and Yamagata Prefectures to use as a control group. The survey items included birth information, anthropometric measurements, and methods of nutrition during infancy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eighty municipalities from Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima Prefectures and 21 from the control prefectures participated in the survey. As a result, we established three retrospective cohorts consisting of 13,886, 15,474, and 32,202 preschool children.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The large datasets acquired for the present survey will provide valuable epidemiological evidence that should shed light on preschool children's physical growth in relation to the disaster.
authors.affiliation: Department of Disaster Public Health, International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS), Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Matsubara
authors.affiliation: Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization (ToMMo), Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan; Department of Molecular Epidemiology, Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: Mami
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ishikuro
authors.affiliation: Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization (ToMMo), Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan; Department of Molecular Epidemiology, Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kikuya
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Iwate Medical University, Morioka, Japan.
authors.forename: Shoichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chida
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Japan.
authors.forename: Mitsuaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hosoya
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Japan.
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ono
authors.affiliation: Department of Early Childhood and Elementary Education, Jumonji University, Niiza, Saitama, Japan.
authors.forename: Noriko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Subspecialties, National Center for Child Health and Development, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Susumu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yokoya
authors.affiliation: Japanese Association for Human Auxology, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshiaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Tsuyoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Isojima
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, Graduate School Department of Interdisciplinary Research, University of Yamanashi, Chuo, Yamanashi, Japan.
authors.forename: Zentaro
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yamagata
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: Soichiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.affiliation: Department of Disaster Public Health, International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS), Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan; Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization (ToMMo), Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan; Department of Molecular Epidemiology, Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan. Electronic address: kuriyama@med.tohoku.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Shinichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kuriyama
authors.affiliation: Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization (ToMMo), Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan; Department of Pediatrics, Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: Shigeo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kure
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D000067576:Child Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004190:Disasters; D055866:Earthquakes; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies
keywords: Health examination; Physical growth; Preschool children; Retrospective cohort study; The Great East Japan Earthquake