Disaster Victim Identification: Psychological Distress and Posttraumatic Stress in Dentists After the 2011 Fukushima Disaster.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the correlates of psychological responses in dentists who conducted disaster victim identification (DVI) in Fukushima following the 2011 earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster.

METHOD: Self-report questionnaires were administered to 49 male dentists six to nine months after the disaster. Psychological distress and posttraumatic stress were measured using the General Health Questionnaire-30 (GHQ-30) and Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), respectively. Independent variables included sociodemographic characteristics, participant disaster exposures, DVI-related exposures, and fear of radiation exposure during DVI. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed to examine independent-dependent variable relations.

RESULTS

Thirty-eight participants (77.6%) had examined ≥ 40 corpses, 20 (40.8%) reported ≥ 4 corpse-related exposures, and six (12.2%) reported ≥ 5 gruesome corpse exposures. Mean (SD) GHQ-30 and IES-R scores were 5.08 (5.31) and 9.90 (10.1), respectively. Higher levels of psychological distress were associated with younger age (adjusted β = -0.29), extensive property loss (β = 0.34), and anxiety for the future (β = 0.33). Higher levels of posttraumatic stress were associated with extensive property loss (adjusted R2 = 17.7%, β = 0.30). Neither outcome was associated with DVI-related exposures or fear of radiation exposure during DVI (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Dentists' psychological burden was associated with disaster, but not DVI, exposures.