Periodontal Disease Is Associated with Insomnia among Victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake: A Panel Study Initiated Three Months after the Disaster

Periodontal Disease Is Associated with Insomnia among Victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake: A Panel Study Initiated Three Months after the Disaster

MASAHIRO TSUCHIYA,^1,2 JUN AIDA,³ YOSHIHIRO HAGIWARA,⁴ YUMI SUGAWARA,^5,6 YASUTAKE TOMATA,⁵ MARI SATO,^6,7 TAKASHI WATANABE,⁵ HIROAKI TOMITA,⁸ EIJI NEMOTO,⁹ MAKOTO WATANABE,¹ KEN OSAKA^3,10 and ICHIRO TSUJI^5,6

¹Tohoku Fukushi University, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan
²Division of Oral Diagnosis, Tohoku University Graduate School of Dentistry, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan
³Division of International and Community Oral Health, Tohoku University Graduate School of Dentistry, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan
⁴Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan
⁵Division of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Forensic Medicine, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan
⁶Center for Community Health, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan
⁷Department of Women's Health Nursing, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan
⁸Department of Disaster Psychiatry, Internal Research Institute of Disaster Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan
⁹Division of Periodontology and Endodontology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Dentistry, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan
10Tohoku University International Research Institute of Disaster Science, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan

In March 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE), which was followed by a devastating tsunami, destroyed the societal and the public hygiene systems in Japanese coastal areas. Insomnia, the greatest issue among disaster victims, has detrimental effects on both physical and psychological health. Periodontitis causes chronic discomfort and inflammation, and little is known about its impact on insomnia. Three months after the earthquake, a health panel survey was conducted over four surveys, till September 2013, in which information regarding 8,015 adults was collected and used. In addition to the heath-related questionnaire, other variables including subjective symptoms of oral diseases were recorded, and the Athens Insomnia Scale was used to evaluate the severity of insomnia. The association between insomnia and periodontal disease was examined using multilevel logistic models on the panel data, after adjusting for sex, age, economic status, comorbidities, body mass index, post-traumatic stress reactions, habitual smoking and alcohol drinking, and the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale score. In addition to the higher prevalence of insomnia among GEJE victims, significant association was revealed between insomnia and gum problems (OR = 2.16, 95% CI = 1.43-3.26), and difficulty chewing (OR = 2.22, 95% CI = 1.40-3.51), after adjusting for all covariates. The present study revealed significant association between insomnia and periodontal disease among GEJE victims. This indicated that together, integrated oral health care for disaster victims would contribute not only to prevention of oral infectious diseases, but may also help alleviate other problems caused by these harmful events.

keywords —— insomnia; large-scale disaster; oral health; panel study; periodontal disease

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Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2015, 237, 83-90

Correspondence: Jun Aida, Division of International and Community Oral Health, Tohoku University Graduate School of Dentistry, 4-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8575, Japan.

e-mail: j-aida@umin.ac.jp