International Travelers’ Behaviors and Knowledge of Travel Health, Travel-Related Diseases, and Vaccinations: A Cross-Sectional Study

Authors

  • Bilge Kalanlar Department of Public Health Nursing, Nursing Faculty, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey
  • Bünyamin Bilgiç Directorate General of Health for Border and Coastal Areas, Istanbul, Turkey
  • Makbule Şenel Faculty of Nursing, Istanbul University – Cerrahpasa Florence Nightingale, Istanbul, Turkey
  • Osman Kan Directorate General of Health for Border and Coastal Areas, Istanbul, Turkey
Abstract:

Introduction: Travel health centers offer very important health services for individuals traveling abroad. Little is known about the health status and knowledge of travel health, travel-related diseases, and vaccinations of individuals who travel abroad and visit travel health centers. This research studied travelers who visited a travel health center in order to evaluate their behavior and knowledge of travel health, travel-related diseases, and vaccinations. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted with 407 participants between June and September 2018, the busiest time for international travel. It was administered at a travel health center attached to the Directorate General of Health for Border and Coastal Areas of Turkey. Results: The results indicated that 78.6% of participants did not obtain travel health insurance before their trip, and 63.6% did not prepare a travel health kit for their trip. Moreover, 61.4% reported that they did not know about the health conditions and practices of their destination country. Individuals traveling for business did more research on travel-related diseases compared to those traveling for other reasons. Additionally, 61.3% of individuals who rated themselves healthy sought information about the health conditions at their travel destinations. Conclusion: The current study showed that the knowledge and healthcare practices among international travelers are inadequate. Raising awareness is needed to create a positive behavioral change in people’s travel health practices.

Upgrade to premium to download articles

Sign up to access the full text

Already have an account?login

similar resources

Travel Agency Awareness of the Health Risks of International Travel; A Pilot Study

Introduction: Travel agencies may be consulted by intending travelers seeking pre-travel health advice. Travel agents should be equipped to deal with such queries and have access to a source of high quality travel health advice. This study aimed to establish the level of knowledge of travel health risks among Irish travel agencies. Methods: A web-based su...

full text

An Analysis of the Preventive Behavior and Attitudes of International Travelers from South East Asia; the Kuala Lumpur Airport Survey

Introduction: There has been significant growth in international tourism from South-East Asia. Travel medicine services are still quite limited in this region. Few data exists on the knowledge, attitudes and practices of travelers from South-East Asia regarding the prevention of travel-related health risks. The present study aimed to characterize the travel t...

full text

a contrastive study of rhetorical functions of citation in iranian and international elt scopus journals

writing an academic article requires the researchers to provide support for their works by learning how to cite the works of others. various studies regarding the analysis of citation in m.a theses have been done, while little work has been done on comparison of citations among elt scopus journal articles, and so the dearth of research in this area demands for further investigation into citatio...

Factor Analysis of a Novel Scoring-Based Instrument on Forecasting Malaysian Travelers’ Behavioral Preparedness for Travel-Related Infectious Diseases

Introduction: Preparedness for the prevention of travel-related infectious diseases among Malaysian international travelers has yet to be explored. With no such data, health programs to empower travelers on behavioral responses towards travel-related illnesses will be ineffective. The current study aimed to develop and validate a new scoring-based instrument measuring Malaysian...

full text

A cross-sectional study of pre-travel health-seeking practices among travelers departing Sydney and Bangkok airports

BACKGROUND Pre-travel health assessments aim to promote risk reduction through preventive measures and safe behavior, including ensuring travelers are up-to-date with their immunizations. However, studies assessing pre-travel health-seeking practices from a variety of medical and non-medical sources and vaccine uptake prior to travel to both developing and developed countries within the Asia-Pa...

full text

My Resources

Save resource for easier access later

Save to my library Already added to my library

{@ msg_add @}


Journal title

volume 6  issue 4

pages  168- 173

publication date 2018-12-01

By following a journal you will be notified via email when a new issue of this journal is published.

Hosted on Doprax cloud platform doprax.com

copyright © 2015-2023