Is pre-travel advice followed? A study of UK international travellers with gastrointestinal illness and asymptomatic travellers

IF 3.2 3区医学 Q1 PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH

Public Health Pub Date : 2025-10-07 DOI:10.1016/j.puhe.2025.105954

Nicola K. Love , Yanshi , Parisha Katwa , Iman Mohamed , Dipti Patel , Hilary Kirkbride , Sooria Balasegaram

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objectives

Pre-travel advice aims to reduce the risk of gastrointestinal illness, but many travellers don't seek or adhere to advice. We investigated access and adherence to pre-travel advice in returning English travellers with and without gastrointestinal infections.

Study design

Unmatched case-control study

Methods

Cryptosporidiosis, Giardiasis, non-typhoidal Salmonellosis and Shigellosis cases notified to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) reporting international travel (during incubation period) and market research recruited asymptomatic travellers completed an electronic questionnaire between 01 July and 15 October 2023. All analyses were performed in RStudio. Demographics, pre-travel health advice-seeking and advice awareness were compared by Pearson's Chi-squared test and a multivariable analysis was performed using a forward stepwise approach.

Results

53 % of cases (n = 347/653) and 27 % of controls (n = 128/483) sought pre-travel advice. Advice-seeking was higher for destinations with poorer water, hygiene and sanitation (high-risk WASH; p=<0.001). Individuals travelling to high-risk short-haul destinations near to Europe (p = 0.05), visiting friends or relatives (p = 0.09), or travelling for ≤14 days (p = 0.07) were least likely to seek advice, with just over a third stating advice wasn't required for their destination. Individuals without advice were significantly less compliant with advice for the prevention of food and waterborne illness while travelling.

Conclusions

A lack of awareness of advice for the prevention of travel associated food and waterborne disease and the perception that some high-risk destinations are low-risk may be putting individuals at increased risk of acquiring potentially serious gastrointestinal infections. Further work is needed to raise awareness of the need for advice prior to travelling, particularly when travelling to higher-risk short-haul destinations.

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是否遵循了旅行前的建议？英国国际旅行者胃肠道疾病和无症状旅行者的研究。

目的：旅行前建议旨在降低胃肠道疾病的风险，但许多旅行者不寻求或遵守建议。我们调查了有或没有胃肠道感染的英国旅行者旅行前建议的获取和遵守情况。方法：在2023年7月1日至10月15日期间，向英国卫生安全局（UKHSA）通报的报告国际旅行（潜伏期）的隐孢子虫病、贾第虫病、非伤寒沙门氏菌病和志贺氏菌病病例和市场研究招募的无症状旅行者完成电子问卷。所有分析均在RStudio中进行。采用Pearson卡方检验比较人口统计学、旅行前健康咨询咨询和咨询意识，并采用前向逐步方法进行多变量分析。结果：53%的病例（n = 347/653）和27%的对照组（n = 128/483）在旅行前寻求咨询。在水、个人卫生和环境卫生条件较差的目的地，寻求咨询的人数较多(高危讲卫生运动；p=结论：缺乏对预防与旅行有关的食物和水传播疾病的建议的认识，以及认为一些高风险目的地是低风险的看法，可能会使个人获得潜在严重胃肠道感染的风险增加。需要进一步开展工作，提高人们对旅行前需要咨询意见的认识，特别是在前往高风险的短途目的地旅行时。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Public Health 医学-公共卫生、环境卫生与职业卫生

CiteScore

7.60

自引率

0.00%

发文量

280

审稿时长

37 days

期刊介绍： Public Health is an international, multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal. It publishes original papers, reviews and short reports on all aspects of the science, philosophy, and practice of public health.