General Workers Living with Younger Children in Fukushima Performed more Preventive Behavior against Radiation during and after the Nuclear Disaster

Background: During and after the Fukushima nuclear disaster (FND), many parents were concerned aboutthe effects of radiation on the health of their children. Purpose: To clarify the factors that influenced generalworkers living with children and the effect of child age groups in implementing preventive behaviorsagainstradiation following the FND. Materials and
Methods: A descriptive study of preventive behaviors among generalworkers was carried out 3-5 months after the nuclear disaster. The subjects were 1,394 regular workers, whotook part in radiation seminars run by the Fukushima Occupational Health Promotion Center between July andSeptember, 2011. In total, 1,217 responses were submitted, of which 1,110 were eligible for the present study. Thisanonymous questionnaire survey inquired about the presence and age of children in the household and aboutradiation preventive behavior implemented after the FND. The contribution of each variable was assessed bylogistic regression analysis.
Results: General workers in Fukushima who lived with younger children performedmore preventive behavior against radiation during and after the FND. In particular, both location-related anddaily routines were practiced significantly more frequently (p<0.01) by workers living with a child in the ageranges of 0-6 (8 of 10 items) and 7-12 (5 of 10 items).
Conclusions: This is the first study to assess the positiveassociation between living with children by age group and increased preventive behavior against radiationimplemented by general workers after the FND.