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Disasters and the Disablement Process framework: an analysis of the great east Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011
Author(s) -
Minagawa Yuka,
Saito Yasuhiko
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
disasters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.744
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1467-7717
pISSN - 0361-3666
DOI - 10.1111/disa.12456
Subject(s) - odds , logistic regression , poison control , occupational safety and health , suicide prevention , environmental health , incidence (geometry) , injury prevention , human factors and ergonomics , odds ratio , sample (material) , geography , demography , gerontology , medical emergency , socioeconomics , medicine , sociology , physics , chemistry , pathology , chromatography , optics
This study used the Disablement Process framework to examine how exposure to the great east Japan earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011 was related to elders’ experiences of disability—that is, ‘a gap between personal capability and environmental demand’ (Verbrugge and Jette, 1994, p. 1). Data were derived from two waves (2009 and 2013) of the Nihon University Japanese Longitudinal Study of Aging, involving a representative sample of citizens aged 65 or more. Logistic regression was employed to model how the disaster was associated with the prevalence and incidence of disability. A significant relationship was documented between the two. Those impacted by the event exhibited greater odds of reporting a disability in 2013 and developing one between 2009 and 2013. Disasters destroy social infrastructure and disrupt daily life, widening the lacuna between the environment and personal resources. Given the increasing number of disasters, more policy attention should be directed to reducing their adverse consequences for health.