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Effect of minamata disease status and the perception of unfairness on ill health and inequalities in health amongst residents of Shiranui sea communities
Author(s) -
Ushijima Kayo,
Sung Woncheol,
Kawakita Minoru,
Tanaka Shiro,
Mukai Yoshito,
Tamura Kenji,
Tanaka Mika,
Maruyama Sadami
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
stress and health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.009
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1532-2998
pISSN - 1532-3005
DOI - 10.1002/smi.1310
Subject(s) - general health questionnaire , socioeconomic status , demography , logistic regression , environmental health , confounding , medicine , population , psychology , gerontology , mental health , psychiatry , sociology , pathology
Minamata disease (MD) is a neurological disorder caused by eating seafood contaminated with methylmercury, first identified in 1956 in Japan. However, reports of ill health related to MD increased sharply following a ruling by the Supreme Court in 2004. We performed logistic regression analyses to examine the relationship between MD specific socioeconomic status (MD status) and health inequalities amongst residents of Shiranui sea communities. Data were collected by two‐stratified sampling of residents 40–79 years old in 172 postal code areas on the Shiranui sea coast. A questionnaire was distributed to eligible subjects ( n = 2100) and collected at a later visit or by mail. Two self‐reported health outcomes were examined: MD‐related physical symptoms (MDRS) and the 12‐item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ‐12). We classified the 1546 respondents according to MD status: Early and Recent (received MD compensation before and after the Supreme Court decision, respectively) and Not Yet (yet to receive compensation). Adjusting for confounding factors, Early and Recent was significantly associated with elevated MDRS and GHQ‐12 compared with Not Yet . After further adjusting for perception of unfairness, the inequality between Early and Recent was reduced. Efforts to improve the population's health in these areas should consider health effects of MD status and perception of unfairness. Copyright ? 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.