The Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 left many evacuees with insufficient food and emergency shelter. However, there is no evidence concerning the factors affecting dietary circumstances in emergency shelters after disasters. To clarify the factors that influenced the provision of meals, we reanalyzed a data set from a dietary survey conducted in emergency shelters one month after the Great East Japan Earthquake (2011). Among the 69 shelters in "city A," 53 (79.1%) had food shortages. The possibility of cooking in the emergency shelter improved the provision of meals to evacuees. When comparing emergency shelters with and without cooking equipment, the shelters with cooking equipment provided more meals, as well as more dishes containing grains and vegetables. When there was a gas supply, the twice per day provision of "balanced" meals (containing grains, vegetables, and meat/fish) was more frequent than when there was no gas supply. Interestingly, neither the water supply nor the electricity supply affected the provision of balanced meals. Further, emergency shelters with larger numbers of evacuees had a lower possibility of cooking and lower availability of gas supply. Our results demonstrate that early improvements to post-disaster meal provision may maintain the health of evacuees. Such improvements could be achieved by 1) the speedy restoration of the gas supply to enable cooking, and 2) limiting the number of evacuees per emergency shelter.
在2011 年的東日本大地震後，許多災民沒有足夠的食物和緊急避難所。然 而，關於災難後在緊急避難所中影響飲食情況的因素目前並無確證。為澄清 影響餐食供應的因素，重新分析在東日本大地震一個月後，於緊急避難所進 行的膳食調查資料。在A 城市中有69 間避難所，其中53 間(79.1%)有糧食短 缺的問題。在緊急避難所烹調的可能性，提升膳食供應給避難者。比較有或 無烹調設備之緊急避難所，有烹調設備者可以提供較多餐點，及較多包含穀 物和蔬菜的菜餚。有天然氣供應的避難所，每天提供兩次“均衡”餐點(包含穀 物、蔬菜和肉或魚)的頻率高於沒有天然氣者。特別的是，不論供水或電力供 應狀況都不影響提供均衡餐食。再者，多數緊急避難所的難民有較少的烹調 機會及較低的天然氣供應可獲性。本研究結果顯示，即早改善災難後餐食供 應可維持災民的健康。下列舉措可促成這種改善：(1)迅速恢復天然氣供應以 提供烹調；(2)限制每個緊急避難所的災民人數。