Travellers' perspective on travel health advice in North Queensland/Australia

Objectives: The purpose of this study was 1) to investigate if travellers from North Queensland/Australia to destinations in developing countries seek travel health advice and, if so, what kind of advice they receive; and 2) to ascertain the ideal type and source of travel health advice from the travellers' perspective. Methods: For this descriptive study, a questionnaire was developed consisting of three parts, 1) demographic data and information on the impending travel, 2) data on travel health advice seeking behaviour, advice sought for this specific trip and content of this advice, and 3) data on the ideal situation of receiving travel health advice. Staff of participating travel agents in Townsville and Cairns included a copy of the questionnaire in the travel document wallets of clients travelling to destinations in Central and South America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific Region. Completed forms were returned via pre-paid envelopes. Results: Fifty-seven percent of the respondents (n=106) claimed to always seek advice, 4 % never do so. Ninety-one percent had sought travel health advice for their impending trip. Most (83) went to their family doctor for advice at least as one of the sources consulted. Advice mainly concentrated on information on prevention of insect bites, food and water hygiene, and hepatitis, with other health aspects either rarely discussed or possibly not remembered by the respondents. However, conflicting advice (eg. from different doctors) left some prospective travellers very confused and uncertain. The need for a travel clinic in the region was seen by 40 % of the participants as desirable to receive updated, consistent and high quality travel health education. A combination of educational strategies (printed material and verbal information) was seen as most effective, 8 % thought verbal instructions only were sufficient. Conclusions: The findings suggest that a more coordinated approach to travel health education is needed in the region where clients can receive high quality information they feel they can rely on