ArticleSocial psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology2015
Mental health and alcohol problems among Estonian cleanup workers 24 years after the Chernobyl accident.
Article in Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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10 citing papers in PubMed, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mortality from cancer and non-cancer diseases in the Lithuanian cohort of Chernobyl cleanup workers (2001-2020).International journal of cancer · 2026Article
- Psychological distress 35 years after the Chornobyl accident in the Lithuanian clean-up workers.Global health action · 2023Article
- Public Works Employees and Posttruamatic Stress Disorder: an At-Risk Population.The Psychiatric quarterly · 2023Review
- Lessons Learned from the Mental Health Consequences of the Chernobyl and Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Accidents.Clinical neuropsychiatry · 2021Article
- PTSD and bipolar II disorder in Fukushima disaster relief workers after the 2011 nuclear accident.BMJ case reports · 2020Article
- Radiation Risk Analysis of Neuropsychiatric Disorders in Ukrainian Chornobyl Catastrophe Liquidators.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Article
- How clean is clean: a review of the social science of environmental cleanups.Environmental research letters : ERL [Web site] · 2018Article
- The Associations between Self-Reported Exposure to the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster Zone and Mental Health Disorders in Ukraine.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2018Article
- The 30-year mental health legacy of the Chernobyl disaster.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2016Article
- Consequences of toxic disasters for rescue, recovery, and clean-up workers require integrated mental and physical health monitoring: Editorial comment for social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2015Article
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5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeTo study the long-term mental health consequences of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident among cleanup workers from Estonia.
methodsIn 2010, 614 Estonian Chernobyl cleanup workers and 706 geographically and age-matched population-based controls completed a mail survey that included self-rated health, the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL), alcohol symptoms (AUDIT), and scales measuring depressive, anxiety, agoraphobia, fatigue, insomnia, and somatization symptoms. Respondents were dichotomized into high (top quartile) and low symptom groups on each measure.
resultsLogistic regression analysis detected significant differences between cleanup workers and controls on all measures even after adjustment for ethnicity, education, marital status, and employment status. The strongest difference was found for somatization, with cleanup workers being three times more likely than controls to score in the top quartile (OR = 3.28, 95% CI 2.39-4.52), whereas for alcohol problems the difference was half as large (OR = 1.52, 95% CI 1.16-1.99). Among cleanup workers, arrival at Chernobyl in 1986 (vs. later) was associated with sleep problems, somatization, and symptoms of agoraphobia.
conclusionThe toll of cleanup work was evident 24 years after the Chernobyl accident among Estonian cleanup workers indicating the need for focused mental health interventions.
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