Objectives: We examined self-reported physical health during the first 2 years following the 2004 tsunami in Thailand.
Methods: We assessed physical health with the revised Short Form Health Survey. We evaluated 6 types of tsunami exposure: personal injury, personal loss of home, personal loss of business, loss of family member, family member's injury, and family's loss of business. We examined the relationship between tsunami exposure and physical health with multivariate linear regression.
Results: One year post-tsunami, we interviewed 1931 participants (97.2% response rate), and followed up with 1855 participants 2 years after the tsunami (96.1% follow-up rate). Participants with personal injury or loss of business reported poorer physical health than those unaffected (P < .001), and greater health impacts were found for women and older individuals.
Conclusions: Exposure to the tsunami disaster adversely affected physical health, and its impact may last for longer than 1 year, which is the typical time when most public and private relief programs withdraw.