Occurrence of depressive tendency and associated social factors among elderly persons forced by the Great East Japan Earthquake and nuclear disaster to live as long-term evacuees: a prospective cohort study

Abstract

Renters faced a higher risk of PDT than persons evacuated in groups to purpose-built housing. The inclusion of social activities in the multivariate Poisson regression analysis weakened this effect. Female gender, a history of diabetes, reduced IADL and a tendency to cognitive disorder each independently affected PDT risk. These findings may inform future responses to earthquakes and the technical disasters that may accompany them.