Awareness of university students about the health risks associated with a stay abroad, knowledge and use of possible preventive measures

The topic of my thesis is foreign travel issues. Its purpose is to survey the awareness of students of the University of South Bohemia about travel risks, while mapping the knowledge and use of available preventive measures. The thesis is divided into two parts, theoretical and practical. In the theoretical part I try to describe in a well arranged way the available knowledge about health risks associated with traveling, including the various forms of prevention. The aim of the practical part is to analyze the obtained data and to determine the awareness of university students about the risks associated with traveling. The survey is based on the methods of prevalence studies conducted using an anonymous questionnaire survey. In total, 652 students of the University of South Bohemia were addressed, the number of returns was 460 questionnaires. In relation to the objectives two hypotheses were proposed. H1: The awareness of students of the Faculty of Health and Social Studies about the health risks associated with a stay abroad is significantly higher than that of students of other faculties of the University of South Bohemia. H2: Statistically, the most important source of information on the knowledge and use of possible prevention measures is the Internet. These hypotheses were statistically evaluated and on the basis of the obtained results they were confirmed or refuted. The research results show that the most informed about the presented issues are students of the Faculty of Science. This fact was later explained by a number of exotic destinations visited during the last stay abroad, as well as a wide offer of the Faculty of globally-oriented practical training and research fellowships, in connection with which the students inform themselves about possible travel risks. Statistically, most of the surveyed students use the Internet to get information. This research became the basis for targeted focus of health education on minimizing health risks when traveling abroad. The real outcome of the thesis is an information poster which will be distributed to individual faculties of the University of South Bohemia