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The authors analyzed the relations between a variety of earthquake-related experiences incurred in 1983-1984 (financial loss, evacuation, indices of disruption of social networks) and coronary heart disease risk factors (heart rate, blood pressure, total serum cholesterol) assessed in 1987 among 693 Italian male factory workers. Multivariate analyses (adjusting for age, body mass index, smoking, and educational level) revealed no long term relations between the quake-related experiences and blood pressure or cholesterol level. However, higher resting heart rates were observed for individuals who reported financial loss, increased distance from family/friends, or decreased visiting as a result of relocation after the quakes. Findings were unchanged after further adjustment for self-reported psychological distress (assessed using the global symptom index of the Symptom Checklist). These findings, while limited by the cross-sectional nature of the data, suggest that a number of psychosocial consequences of relocation due to a natural disaster are unrelated in the long term to coronary heart disease risk factors, except for small but significant differences in heart rate among individuals who have experienced financial loss and/or social network disruptions.

Objective: This paper analyzes the longitudinal relationship between serum uric acid level and a natural disaster., Methods: The sample consists of factory workers who were participating in a longitudinal epidemiological study of coronary heart disease risk factors. Participants were seen in 1975 (baseline), 1980 (5 year follow-up), and 1987 (12 year follow-up). The 5 year (1980) follow-up examination was interrupted by a major earthquake and resumed 2 weeks after the quake. At this examination, participants seen after the quake had, on the average, significantly lower serum uric acid than those seen before the earthquake. In 1987 (7 years after the quake), participants were questioned whether or not (in their own perception) they were still suffering from damages due to the 1980 earthquake., Results: At the examination in 1987, participants who reported suffering from damage due to the 1980 quake showed on the average significantly increased serum uric acid compared with participants who reported not suffering from damages due to the 1980 quake. The analyses of the data of 578 individuals who participated in all three examinations confirmed these findings and showed that they were independent from levels of uric acid measured prior to the disaster., Conclusions: The reason for this apparent different association with uric acid and acute and long-term exposure to the quake remains to be clarified but these findings are consistent with the existence of diverse patterns of physiologic response to different stressors.

The relationship between social network disturbances following earthquake evacuation and self-reported psychological distress (reduced version of the SCL-90-R) 3 to 4 years later was studied among 817 Italian male factory workers. Increased distress was reported by permanently relocated men, while those who were evacuated, but returned to their original homes, reported distress levels comparable to their nonevacuated co-workers. Additionally, among evacuated men, only those whose relocation placed them at an increased distance from family and/or friends reported distress levels higher than the nonevacuated. Change in visiting frequency with family and/or friends following evacuation was not related to distress. Although these data are correlational and cross-sectional, they are consistent with the hypothesis that disaster related distress is, in part, a function of resulting social network disruption.

Relationships between self-reported psychological distress (Symptom Checklist) and experience with two earthquakes are presented for a group of male factor workers (N = 772) from Naples, Italy, participating in the 1987 follow-up of the Olivetti Heart Study. Although all were exposed to the 1980 earthquake that racked southern Italy, only men residing in the Naples suburb of Pozzuoli experienced the continuing swarm of earthquakes ("bradyseism") of 1983-1984, allowing for the observation of a "natural experiment" of sorts. Levels of psychological distress were found to be higher 7 years after the first earthquake for those men who reported damage from that earthquake. Overall, findings were similar for those who were evacuated, or suffered financial loss from the 1983-1984 bradyseism earthquakes. Stratification by 1980 earthquake damage revealed that 1983-1984 evacuation or financial loss was associated with increased distress reporting only for those men who had not reported damage from the 1980 earthquake. Overall, however, distress scores tended to be higher for men evacuated in 1983-1984 if they had also reported damage from the prior earthquake (only the F ratio for anxiety reached criterion for statistical significance). These findings suggest that the psychological consequences of earthquake exposure are long lasting and seem to be related to the consequences of the earthquake in terms of damage/loss.

The longitudinal association between a number of coronary heart disease risk factors and the experience of a natural disaster (earthquake) was analyzed in a group of workers participating in a longitudinal epidemiologic investigation. The 5-year follow-up examination was interrupted by a major earthquake, and examinations were resumed 2 weeks after the quake. Participants screened after the quake had, on average, higher heart rates, serum cholesterol, and triglycerides than participants examined before the quake; these differences were independent from the coronary heart disease risk factor values measured 5 years previously during the baseline examination. The data collected during the 12-year examination indicated that the observed short-term increase in serum lipids and heart rate was not present long-term (7 years after the quake). These longitudinal data indicate that exposure to a natural disaster can be associated with short-term increases in heart rate, serum cholesterol, and triglycerides but that there is no apparent long-term effect on these coronary heart disease risk factors.

In this analysis of the data from a longitudinal study on coronary heart disease risk factors, it was found that participants screened a few weeks after a major disaster (earthquake) had a higher heart rate, serum cholesterol levels, and serum triglyceride levels than matched participants that were screened shortly before the catastrophic event. The two groups of participants did not differ with regard to their characteristics at the baseline examination carried out 5 years previously. The lack of difference in blood pressure between exposed and nonexposed participants could be explained by the lag-time between the earthquake and the blood pressure measurements. We conclude that the acute stress associated with major disasters can influence risk factors for coronary heart disease. Permanent elevation of these risk factors due to the disruption of the social environment of the individuals affected by major disasters might be responsible for the apparent long-term adverse effects on cardiovascular mortality discussed previously in the literature.