Design of the health examination survey on early childhood physical growth in the Great East Japan Earthquake affected areas

Abstract

BackgroundTo 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.MethodsThe 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.ResultsEighty 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.ConclusionsThe 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.

Changes in height standard deviation scores during early life are affected by nutrition

“…The study group conducted a health examination survey of early childhood physical growth of children in nursery schools in the Tohoku areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake 4 and in other Tohoku areas that were not directly affected by the disaster. We used the longitudinal growth data of preschool children from Aomori, Akita, and Yamagata Prefectures, which were not directly affected by the disaster, in the present analyses.…”

“…Since the growth of the children in affected area might be influenced by the disaster, we wanted to analyze the growth of typical children. Invitation letters to participate in the survey were distributed to 965 authorized nursery schools; 238 (25%) nursery schools from these three prefectures participated 4 . Among the 2,250 children who were born between March 1 2007 and August 31 2007, or those who were born between March 1 2009 and August 31 2009, we evaluated 1,849 children (905 boys and 944 girls) with complete growth records available at the following five time points: (i) at birth; (ii) during early infancy when children were aged 3 to 4 months (3 months); (iii) during late infancy when children were aged 6–10 months (6 months); (iv) at age of 1.5 years (1.5 years); and (v) over the age of 3 years and below the age of 4 years (3 years).…”

“…The study protocol was approved by the institutional review board of Tohoku University (No. 2012‐1‐125) 4 …”

“…A study was undertaken to investigate how the Great East Japan Earthquake affected the health of preschool children in the affected areas of the Tohoku Region. At the same time, data from unaffected areas in the Tohoku Region were collected as a control 4 . Having obtained significant growth data from typical children in unaffected areas from birth to childhood, apart from the main study, we analyzed how early the changes in height SDS began and whether these changes were affected by nutrition during infancy and early childhood in typical children.…”

Impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake on Body Mass Index, Weight, and Height of Infants and Toddlers: An Infant Survey

“…The details of the Health Examination Survey on Early Childhood Physical Growth in the Great East Japan Earthquake Affected Areas have been published elsewhere. 18 In total, 31 out of 59 municipalities (52.5%) in Fukushima Prefecture, 19 out of 36 (54.3%) in Miyagi Prefecture, and 30 out of 33 (90.9%) in Iwate Prefecture collaborated with this survey and provided data from 3-, 6-, 18-, and 42-month child health exams. During the healthcare visits, the children’s gestational age and birth weight were collected through an interview or from a maternal and child health handbook, and their weight and height were measured.…”