Original Research
International Travelers’ Sociodemographic, Health, and Travel Characteristics: An Italian Study
Authors:
Gianmarco Troiano ,
Post Graduate School of Public Health University of Siena, Siena, Italy
About Gianmarco
MD
Astrid Mercone,
Public Hygiene and Nutrition, USL Tuscany Southeast, Tuscany, Italy
About Astrid
MD
Alessandra Bagnoli,
Public Hygiene and Nutrition, USL Tuscany Southeast, Tuscany, Italy
About Alessandra
MD
Nicola Nante
Post Graduate School of Public Health University of Siena, Siena, Italy
About Nicola
MD, MSc
Abstract
Background
Approximately the 8% of travelers requires medical care, with the diagnosis of a vaccine-preventable disease. The aim of our study was to analyze the socio-demographic, health and travel characteristics of the Italian international travelers.
Methods
We conducted a cross sectional study from January 2015 to June 2016, at the Travel Medicine Clinic of Siena, asking the doctor to interview patients who attended the Clinic, recording socio-demographic and travel information, malaria prophylaxis, vaccinations. The data were organized in a database and processed by software Stata®.
Results
We collected 419 questionnaires. Patients chose 71 countries for their travels; the favorite destinations were: India (6.31%), Thailand (6.31%), and Brazil (5.10%). The mean length of stay was 36.17 days. Italians, students, and freelancers tended to stay abroad for a longer time (mean: 36.4 days, 59.87 days and 64.16 days respectively). 33.17% of our sample used drugs for malaria chemoprophylaxis: 71.9% of them used Atovaquone/Proguanil (Malarone®), 26.6% used Mefloquine (Lariam®), 1.5% other drugs. The vaccinations that travelers mostly got in our study were to prevent hepatitis A (n = 264), the typhoid fever (n = 187), the Tetanus + Diphtheria + Pertussis (n = 165), the Yellow fever (n = 118) and the cholera (n = 78).
Twenty-eight (6.68%) refused some recommended vaccinations. The vaccines mostly refused were for Typhoid fever (n = 20), hepatitis a (n = 9), and cholera (n = 9).
Conclusion
Our results demonstrated that Italian international travelers are at-risk because of their poor vaccinations adherence. This implies that pre-travel counseling is fundamental to increase the knowledge of the risks and the compliance of future travelers.
How to Cite:
Troiano, G., Mercone, A., Bagnoli, A. and Nante, N., 2017. International Travelers’ Sociodemographic, Health, and Travel Characteristics: An Italian Study. Annals of Global Health, 83(2), pp.380–385. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.aogh.2016.12.004
Published on
22 Mar 2017.
Peer Reviewed
Downloads