Abstract
Objective: Many studies have reported that exercise improves mental health. A supportive activity for the Great East Japan Earthquake sufferers, which used exercise as a mental health care, was performed. In this study, we aimed to report the activities and efficacies of the exercise support.
Methods: To reduce body-mind exhaustion of sufferers, we used exercise as a means of relaxation and refreshment. The main contents of exercise included some bodyworks, such as yoga. Simple and effective exercises that could be done alone or together were selected to encourage subject autonomy. Support activities were carried out in Otsuchi-cho, Kamiheii-gun, Iwate-ken, for 3 months since April 2011.
Results: A total of 653 people (cumulative number) received exercise support. There were many difficulties to collect the details of individual data; however, alleviation of physical symptoms (low-back pain, gonalgia, neck pain, high-blood pressure, etc.) and improvement of facial expressions were observed after exercises.
Conclusions: It was confirmed that among sufferers of the Great East Japan Earthquake, exercise led to improvement of mental health via the alleviation of physical symptoms. We propose that exercise should be used as a type of mental health care after large scale disasters.
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