Shelter crowding and increased incidence of acute respiratory infection in evacuees following the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and tsunami

• DOI: 10.1017/s0950268815001715
• Publication Date: 2015-08-05T06:30:23Z
• Authors: T. KAWANO; Y. TSUGAWA; K. NISHIYAMA; H. MORITA; O. YAMAMURA; K. HASEGAWA
• Keywords: Interquartile range; Cumulative incidence; Crowding; Rate ratio

SUMMARY Although outbreaks of acute respiratory infection (ARI) at shelters are hypothesized to be associated with shelter crowding, no studies have examined this relationship. We conducted a retrospective study by reviewing medical records evacuees presenting one the 37 clinics in Ishinomaki city, Japan, during 3-week period after Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and tsunami 2011. On basis locally weighted scatter-plot smoothing technique, we categorized into crowded (mean space <5·5 m 2 /per person) non-crowded (⩾5·5 ) shelters. Outcomes interest were cumulative daily incidence rate ARI/10 000 each shelter. found that had higher median ARI [5·4/10 person-days, interquartile range (IQR) 0–24·6, P = 0·04] compared (3·5/10 IQR 0–8·7) using Mann–Whitney U test. Similarly, an increased 19·1/10 person-days (95% confidence interval 5·9–32·4, < 0·01) quasi-least squares method. In sum, crowding was natural disaster.