Traveler’s knowledge, attitude, and practice about travel health insurance: A community-based questionnaire study

BACKGROUND: Travel, especially international travel, has become one of the most popular leisure activities in the world. The risk of accidents and travel-related illnesses, including infectious and non-communicable diseases, should not be neglected. To provide a more comprehensive pre-travel consultation to international travelers, this study aimed to investigate the knowledge, attitude, and practice of travelers about travel health insurance. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study. Anonymous structured questionnaires were distributed to 1000 visitors to the Taiwan International Travel Fair in May 2019. RESULTS: The top three important travel health insurances were accidental death and disablement insurance (92%), accidental medical reimbursement (90.4%), and 24-hour emergency assistance (89%). In addition to education level, travel-associated illness, and special activities during travel, a significant association was observed between the willingness to buy various travel health insurances and the willingness of pre-travel consultation. CONCLUSIONS: Most travelers would buy travel health insurance; however, disproportional respondents understood the content of travel health insurance. Most travelers considered travel clinics to be the most reliable information source regarding travel health insurance. Therefore, travel medicine specialists are encouraged to offer more information about travel health insurance during pre-travel consultation.