Mental decline link to Japan's tsunami

摘要

THE earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in March 2011 killed 20,000 people and uprooted many more. Now there is evidence the disasters and disruption in their wake may have contributed to cognitive decline in some people. Koichiro Shiba at Harvard University and his team analysed data from a study of people in Japan aged 65 years or older. They focused their efforts on data taken from Iwanuma in Miyagi Prefecture, which was severely hit by the tsunami. About 3350 adults with an average age of 73.2 took part in the initial survey, seven months before the disasters, and were surveyed again in a follow-up 2.5 years later. In a follow-up 5.5 years after the earthquake, 2664 of the adults took part.