The effects of living environment on disaster workers: a one–year longitudinal study

BACKGROUND Defense Force workers engaged in disaster relief activities might suffer from strong psychological stress due to the tasks that they had been involved. We evaluated how living environments, work environments, and individual factors psychologically affect those who engaged in disaster relief activities. METHOD Data generated with 1506 personnel engaged in the Great East Japan Earthquake relief activity were analyzed. Those who scored ≥25 points on the Impact of Events Scale-Revised and the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) were allocated into the high post-traumatic stress response (high-PTSR) group, and the high general psychological distress (high-GPD) group, respectively. RESULTS The multiple logistic regression analysis extracted living environment (camping within the shelter sites) as the significant risk factor for both high-PTSR (OR = 3.39, 95 % CI 2.04-5.64, p < 0.001) and high-GPD (OR = 3.35, 95 % CI 1.77-6.34, p < 0.001) groups. CONCLUSION It is desirable for disaster workers to have a living environment in which they can keep an appropriate distance from the victims.