People who experienced a disaster had a higher prevalence of problem alcohol use in the years after the disaster, and the rates of problem alcohol use increased over time. A study of nuclear power plant workers who experienced a disaster found that those who were exposed to life-threatening danger, discrimination, death of a colleague, or major property loss had an increased prevalence of problem alcohol use. However, for some, the increase in problem drinking did not occur until more than a year after the disaster. The study’s findings, recently published in Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research, point to the prolonged impacts on people who experience disaster and the importance of providing long-term monitoring and support beyond the immediate aftermath of the disaster.
The study assessed problem drinking in workers following a nuclear accident in March 2011. Researchers asked the workers about their experiences during the accident and assessed their current drinking annually in 2012, 2013, and 2014. The study included fourteen hundred people working at two nuclear power plants in Fukushima, Japan, when they were damaged by the March 2011 tsunami on the northern coast of Japan. The tsunami resulted in a critical core meltdown at one of the plants, exposing its workers to life-threatening radiation and explosions. The Fukushima meltdown was the worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. The tsunami caused more than eighteen thousand deaths, and hundreds of thousands of people were displaced from their homes.
Overall, workers reported a significant increase in problem drinking symptoms. In 2012, one year after the disaster, nine percent of workers had symptoms of problem drinking. By 2013, that rate increased to 16 percent and 17 percent by 2014. The prevalence is considerably higher than the prevalence of problem drinking found in non-plant workers affected by the tsunami; a different study found about two percent in 2012 and 2013.
Certain experiences during the disaster were significantly associated with problem drinking. Workers who experienced life-threatening danger had a significantly higher prevalence of problem drinking in all years of the study. The prevalence of problem drinking in workers who experienced discrimination following the disaster gradually declined from 2012 to 2014 but remained significant in 2014, three years after the disaster. Experiencing the death of a colleague or major property loss did not appear to significantly affect workers’ problem drinking in the first year after the disaster, but in subsequent years, their problem drinking increased significantly each year.
A strength of the study was its high response rate of 85 percent. Certain factors were not measured by the study, including the severity of any problem drinking prior to or immediately after the disaster, the intensity of the radiation exposure, or socioeconomic or marital status.
Researchers suggest that individuals who have experienced disaster would benefit from continuous monitoring and opportunities for intervention as well as consideration of particular experiences that may contribute to increased risk for problem drinking.
Longitudinal effects of disaster-related experiences on problem drinking among Fukushima nuclear plant workers: The Fukushima NEWS Project Study. T. Tajima, A. Ikeda, J. Shigemura, T. Tanigawa.
ACER-23-5846.R2
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