PLoS ONE (Jan 2013)

Sleep duration among children 8 months after the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami.

  • Masahide Usami,
  • Yoshitaka Iwadare,
  • Masaki Kodaira,
  • Kyota Watanabe,
  • Momoko Aoki,
  • Chiaki Katsumi,
  • Kumi Matsuda,
  • Kazunori Makino,
  • Sonoko Iijima,
  • Maiko Harada,
  • Hiromi Tanaka,
  • Yoshinori Sasaki,
  • Tetsuya Tanaka,
  • Hirokage Ushijima,
  • Kazuhiko Saito

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0065398
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 5
p. e65398

Abstract

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BACKGROUND: To elucidate relationships between disaster damage conditions and sleep duration among children who survived the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami. METHODS: The subjects comprised 12,524 children in kindergartens, elementary schools, and junior high schools in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. The Post Traumatic Stress Symptoms for Children 15 items (PTSSC-15), a self-completion questionnaire on traumatic symptoms, and a sleep questionnaire were distributed to them. A questionnaire regarding disaster damage conditions of the children's homes was distributed to their teachers. Of 12,524, an effective response was obtained from 11,692 (93.3%). RESULTS: Relationships between sleep duration and traumatic symptoms were displayed low correlations. Children with house damage and/or evacuation experiences slept for a significantly shorter time than children without these experiences. CONCLUSION: It is critical not only to examine traumatic symptoms in children but also to collect sleep duration and disaster damage conditions following natural disasters.