Present status and self-reported diseases of the Korean atomic bomb survivors: a mail questionnaire survey

Many Koreans were forced to move to Japan while Korea was occupied by Japan. Consequently, when the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki an estimated 40,000 Koreans died and 30,000 survived. In 2004, 2,235 Koreans were registered as A-bomb survivors in South Korea. A mail questionnaire survey to evaluate the present status and self-reported diseases of the Korean survivors was conducted. In total, 1,256 questionnaires were returned and analysed. The most frequent chronic diseases reported by Korean survivors were hypertension (40.1 per cent), peptic ulcer disease (25.7 per cent), anaemia (23.3 per cent) and cataracts (23.1 per cent). The most frequent malignant diseases were stomach cancer (1.9 per cent), colon cancer (0.5 per cent) and leukaemia/multiple myeloma (0.4 per cent). This study suggests that further investigations are needed into the health concerns of the survivors and into health protection measures.