Relationship between evacuation after the Great East Japan Earthquake and new-onset hyperuricemia: A 7-year prospective longitudinal study of the Fukushima Health Management Survey

Abstract The Great East Japan Earthquake occurred in Japan on March 11, 2011, with a nuclear accident occurring at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant afterward. The disaster constrained many evacuees to change their lifestyles. However, the effect of evacuation on the new-onset of hyperuricemia have not been sufficiently elucidated. We aimed to assess the association between evacuation and new-onset hyperuricemia after the earthquake based on the Fukushima Health Management Survey from a lifestyle and socio-psychological perspective. A longitudinal study examined data collected from 18,140 residents (6,961 men and 11,179 women) with non-hyperuricemia who underwent both the Comprehensive Health Check and the Mental Health and Lifestyle Survey between 2011 and 2017. Using a Cox proportional hazards regression model analysis, we estimated associations between new-onset hyperuricemia and lifestyle- and disaster-related factors, including evacuation. We defined hyperuricemia as uric acid levels > 7.0 mg/dL for men and > 6.0 mg/dL for women. A total of 2,996 participants (1,608 men, 23.1%, 1,388 women, 12.4%) newly developed hyperuricemia during a median follow-up of 4.3 years. This study observed significant associations between evacuation and onset of hyperuricemia in women (adjusted hazard ratio 1.18, 95% confidence interval, 1.05–1.32, p = 0.007), but not in men (adjusted hazard ratio 1.11, 95% confidence interval, 0.99–1.24, p = 0.067). Evacuation after a natural disaster is an independent risk factor for the new-onset of hyperuricemia in women.