Factors relating to anxiety among medical teams dispatched to the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster

At the time of the accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company's Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant, medical teams and radiation experts were solicited from all over Japan by the Japanese government to go to Fukushima Prefecture. While several reports on the incident and its management have been published, there have been no reports on the causes of anxiety felt by the volunteers or problems foreseen by organizations that declined to send volunteers. To identify the factors contributing to the anxiety levels of the dispatched personnel and to understand the difficulties faced while dispatching volunteers to the affected area, two different questionnaires were sent out to the recruited volunteers and recruiting organizations. Among the professionals sent to Fukushima Prefecture, we found that previous knowledge of radiation emergency or disaster medicine was inversely proportional to their anxiety levels (p < 0.001). Factors giving rise to apprehension depended on the professional's occupation (p = 0.042). Possessing and sharing radiological information among team members helped alleviate anxiety once the professionals entered the hazardous area. It is thus desirable to establish systematic plans with guidelines for proactive education and training for each kind of professional and policies regarding the dispatch of volunteered professionals to alleviate anxiety levels prior to dispatch.