Background: The aim of this study was to explore travelers’ expectations from a pre-travel
consultation and to determine whether the pre-travel counseling met their needs.
Methods: The study was carried out in 2015 at the Travel clinic of the University Hospital of Lausanne. Prior to the consultations, travelers had to indicate their specific expectations from the consultation and had to estimate their perception of risk, dangerosity and knowledge using ten-points scales for the following 11 essential health topics usually discussed in a pre- travel consultation: fever, malaria, diarrhea, road traffic injuries (RTIs), solar injury, insect bites, swimming accidents, rabies, cardiac diseases, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and mountain sickness. After the consultation travelers and professionals had to give an assessment of the way the 11 topics had been discussed.
Results: 252 travelers were approached. The three questionnaires were completed for 146 of them. Mean age was 39.5 years and 139 had already traveled to extra-european countries. The most frequent topic expected to be addressed was vaccinations (66.4%) followed by general information (47.9%), malaria (20.5%) and travel pharmacy (15.1%). In terms of risk perception, 5.5%, 3.4% and 2.7% of travelers perceived a high risk for malaria, STIs and rabies, respectively. 56.8% of all travelers considered the dangerosity high for STIs, 54.8% for malaria and 49.3% for rabies. In terms of knowledge, 25.3%, 24.0% and 15.1% of travelers reported a high level of knowledge for fever, malaria and rabies, respectively. Most travelers were satisfied with the advice given (mean score 8.9 ± 1.6). Malaria, insect bites, rabies and fever were sufficiently discussed according to more than85% of all travelers and according to more than 90% of health professionals. In comparison, 55.5%, 52.7% and 47.9% of all travelers reported that RTIs, solar injury and STIs were discussed sufficiently.
Conclusion:
These results show that travelers have no pre-defined expectations outside vaccinations when attending a pre-travel consultation. Travelers with little knowledge or misperceptions of dangerosity for travel-related health problems should be better identified in order to give them targeted advice.