Pre-travelling health seeking behaviour and predictors of knowledge about travel health and vaccines among Malaysian travellers: An online survey

INTRODUCTION: Travellers are at higher risk of acquiring medical and health related problems especially travel-associated diseases and this remain significant public health burden.  As a numbers of Malaysians engaging in international travel increases, so the risk of acquiring travel associated diseases also increase. However, data and studies addressing this issue in Malaysia are scarce. This study aimed to assess the pre-travelling health seeking behaviour and to   determine factors that can predict knowledge about travel health and vaccines and among Malaysian travellers. METHODS: the online survey   was conducted from December 2016 till March 2017 among 226 Malaysian travellers. They were asked about their demographic data, pre-travelling health behaviours and knowledge about vaccine preventable diseases and travel health. RESULTS:   Prior to the trips, 51.3% and 63.7% of these travellers did pursue health related information about the destination before departure and acquired information about potential travel hazards in the destination, respectively. The results of this study indicated that travellers’ age, household income, number of country visited, seek travel health advice from health professional and acquired information about potential travel hazard were significantly associated with level of knowledge about travel health.  In additional, gender was found as a single significant predictor of knowledge about vaccine preventable disease. CONCLUSION: The findings suggesting that socio-demographic and pre-traveller health seeking behaviour influence the knowledge about travel health.  Hence, there is a public health need for health outreach programs targeting this group. KEYWORD:  health seeking behaviours, travel heath, disease prevention, communicable disease.