Objectives: Experience of a major disaster can potentially impact on tobacco consumption. Our objective was to explore the determinants of increasing tobacco consumption after the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE).
Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study using data from the Miyagi Prefectural Health Survey 2014: a total of 2632 people were randomly selected from residents aged ≥20 years in Miyagi, Japan. Of 2443 respondents (response rate = 92.8%), 551 current smokers (411 men) were included in the analysis. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for increasing tobacco consumption were calculated using multivariable logistic regression models including variables of age, sex, disaster-related job status change, education status, self-rated health, and age at smoking initiation.
Results: After adjustments for all variables, significantly higher ORs for increasing tobacco consumption after the GEJE were observed in women (OR = 1.87; 95% CI = 1.10-3.15), 20-39 years old (OR = 5.18; 95% CI = 2.28-11.75), 40-59 years old (OR = 3.97; 95% CI = 1.76-8.94) and respondents who had lost their jobs (OR = 3.42; 95% CI = 1.06-11.05) than the counterpart categories.
Conclusions: This study found 3 determinants of increasing tobacco consumption after a major disaster: being a woman, being of working age, and experiencing disaster-related job loss.
Keywords: job loss; the Great East Japan Earthquake; tobacco consumption.