@article {FukuharaP922, author = {Atsuro Fukuhara and Suguru Sato and Manabu Uematsu and Kenichi Misa and Takefumi Nikaido and Naoko Fukuhara and Xintao Wang and Kenya Kanazawa and Yoshinori Tanino and Takashi Ishida and Mitsuro Munakata}, title = {The evaluation of asthma control after the March 11, 2011 complex disaster of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power plant accident}, volume = {42}, number = {Suppl 57}, elocation-id = {P922}, year = {2013}, publisher = {European Respiratory Society}, abstract = {Background; The Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, resulted in the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, which consequently led to a massive emission of radioactive substances. This matchless complex disaster is presumed to have had a huge impact on asthmatics.Objectives; We evaluated the physical and psychological status of asthmatics until one year later after the disaster.Methods; Seventy asthmatics were enrolled and performed a questionnaire about the disaster just after and one year later.Results; Six patients could not continue inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) by the loss of medicine. In these 6 patients, four patients (66.7\%) had an asthmatic attack just after that the disaster. On the other hand, an asthmatic attack was caused only in ten patients in 64 patients (15.6\%, p\<0.0001) that could continue ICS. In ICS continued group, the asthma symptoms and control score were significantly lower in anxiety (+) group compared to anxiety (-) group (p\<0.05). In the examination of the 58 patients that performed a questionnaire one year later, 29 patients felt an anxiety for the disaster at that time. In such patients, there was a weak correlation between anxiety for the disaster and control of asthma. In the examination through the whole one year, 27 patients have continuously felt anxiety, but only 8 patients were aware of deterioration of asthma control.Conclusions; Patients can maintain a good asthma control by continuation of ICS even just after the disaster. In addition, long term psychological support seems to be important to reduce anxiety and keep good asthma control.}, issn = {0903-1936}, URL = {https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/42/Suppl_57/P922}, eprint = {https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/42/Suppl_57/P922.full.pdf}, journal = {European Respiratory Journal} }