Background: Travelers are at higher risk of developing health-related problems, especially travel-related diseases, and this remains a major public health burden.
Aims: To assess pretravel health behavior-seeking factors, knowledge of vaccine, and travel health attitudes. A cross-sectional design among Malaysian travelers.
Methods: An online survey was conducted from December 2017 till March 2018 among 226 participants. Demographic data, pretraveling health behaviors, knowledge of vaccine-preventable diseases, and travel health were asked. Independent t-test and ANOVA were performed using SPSS version 20.
Results: Among travelers, 51.3% and 63.7% used health-related information on their destination before departure and collected information on possible travel hazards at their destination. Participant age (P = 0.02), monthly income (P = 0.01), predeparture health information (P = 0.03), information on possible hazards (P = 0.04), and travel health advice from medical professionals (P = 0.03) have been reported as a major predictor of knowledge of vaccine-preventable disease. Travelers' gender (P = 0.01), household income (P = 0.01), and travel health advice from professionals (P = 0.002) were significantly associated with travel health attitude.
Conclusions: Sociodemographic and pretravel health-seeking behavior influence knowledge of vaccine-preventable disease and attitudes towards travel health which requires a public health need for community outreach programs targeting this group.
Keywords: Attitude to health; communicable diseases; information-seeking behavior; travel-related illness; vaccine-preventable diseases.
Copyright: © 2022 International Journal of Preventive Medicine.