THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PRE-TRAVEL HEALTH ADVICE IN COMMUNICABLE DISEASE MANAGEMENT SAMANTHA DEVLIN ( ) SOC30011: Social Research Design Assessment 2A Presentation

Background As international tourism grows, so does the spread of communicable diseases such as dengue and yellow fever. Between 2013 and 2014 travel from Australia to Indonesia grew 17.7% as travel options become more affordable. WHO advises all travellers to developing countries to visit a travel health practitioner at least 4 weeks prior to departure and calls for a tailored approach to travel health prevention through specialists. Research on travellers’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) towards travel health is limited particularly in Australia. There does not appear to be any research on the effective impact and benefit of these pre-travel preventative measures.

Literature Review 2004 KAP study in Australia found only 31% of respondents had received any pre-travel advice and only 4% from a travel health specialist. Other global studies have found similar results. Other sources of travel health advice include travel agents, websites and general practice health professionals. Backpacker study in SE Asia found while awareness of malaria was high (94%), nearly 40% still took no prevention measures against the disease and 35% believed infection was caused by contaminated food. Previous research found a need for tailored educational programs for different traveller groups for ongoing risk management while overseas.

Research Question “Travellers who visit a travel health specialist are “healthier” travellers in comparison to those who seek advice through general practice and the broader travelling population.” Definition of a “healthy” traveller is evaluated through:  Receipt of relevant pre-travel vaccinations and/or medication.  Pre-travel KAP score on relevant health risks associated with their destination and how to manage those risks.  A record of any illness while overseas.  Actual behaviour patterns and attitudes while overseas.  Management and recovery of any illness while overseas.

Methodology Pre and post travel questionnaire to 3 travel populations: 1. Patients travelling to Indonesia who visit Travel Doctor – TMVC clinics in Melbourne and Sydney 2. Patients travelling to Indonesia seeking travel health advice from selected GP clinics in Melbourne and Sydney. 3. Travellers to Indonesia departing overseas from Melbourne and Sydney international airport terminals. Participants will be incentivised to complete both surveys with a holiday prize draw. The questionnaire will be an adaptation of Herck, et al. (2003) KAP study but the post travel aspect of the study will allow evaluation of the impact of any advice received.

Ethics In the absence of a national institution of travel medicine research in Australia, the International Society of Travel Medicine will be notified of the study. Research will follow Swinburne University of Technology’s human research guidelines and meet the requirements set out by NHMRC. Participants will be fully informed of the nature of the study and permission to proceed sought. All data collect will be de-identified prior to analysis and stored in on a secure database.