Pretravelling Health-Seeking Behavior, Knowledge of Vaccines, and Attitudes Toward Travel Health among Malaysian Travelers

BACKGROUND: Travelers are at higher risk of developing health-related problems, especially travel-related diseases, and this remains a major public health burden. AIMS: To assess pretravel health behavior-seeking factors, knowledge of vaccine, and travel health attitudes. A cross-sectional design among Malaysian travelers. METHODS: An online survey was conducted from December 2017 till March 2018 among 226 participants. Demographic data, pretraveling health behaviors, knowledge of vaccine-preventable diseases, and travel health were asked. Independent t-test and ANOVA were performed using SPSS version 20. RESULTS: Among travelers, 51.3% and 63.7% used health-related information on their destination before departure and collected information on possible travel hazards at their destination. Participant age (P = 0.02), monthly income (P = 0.01), predeparture health information (P = 0.03), information on possible hazards (P = 0.04), and travel health advice from medical professionals (P = 0.03) have been reported as a major predictor of knowledge of vaccine-preventable disease. Travelers’ gender (P = 0.01), household income (P = 0.01), and travel health advice from professionals (P = 0.002) were significantly associated with travel health attitude. CONCLUSIONS: Sociodemographic and pretravel health-seeking behavior influence knowledge of vaccine-preventable disease and attitudes towards travel health which requires a public health need for community outreach programs targeting this group.