School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Kensington, New South Wales, Australia.
BMC Infect Dis. 2012 Feb 17;12:43. doi: 10.1186/1471-2334-12-43.
Forward planning and preventative measures before travelling can significantly reduce the risk of many vaccine preventable travel-related infectious diseases. Higher education students may be at an increased risk of importing infectious disease as many undertake multiple visits to regions with higher infectious disease endemicity. Little is known about the health behaviours of domestic or international university students, particularly students from low resource countries who travel to high-resource countries for education. This study aimed to assess travel-associated health risks and preventative behaviours in a sample of both domestic and international university students in Australia.
In 2010, a 28 item self-administered online survey was distributed to students enrolled at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Multiple methods of distributing links to the online survey were utilised. The survey examined the international travel history, travel intentions, infection control behaviours and self-reported vaccination history.
A total of 1663 respondents completed the online survey, 22.1% were international students and 83.9% were enrolled at an undergraduate level. Half had travelled internationally in the previous 12 months, with 69% of those travelling only once during that time with no difference in travel from Australia between domestic and international students (p = 0.8). Uptake of pre-travel health advice was low overall with 68% of respondents reporting they had not sought any advice from a health professional prior to their last international trip. Domestic students were more likely to report uptake of a range of preventative travel health measures compared to international students, including diarrhoeal medication, insect repellent, food avoidance and condoms (P < 0.0001). Overall, students reported low risk perception of travel threats and a low corresponding concern for these threats.
Our study highlights the need to educate students about the risk associated with travel and improve preventative health-seeking and uptake of precautionary health measures in this highly mobile young adult population. Although immunisation is not an entry requirement to study at Universities in Australia, large tertiary institutions provide an opportunity to engage with young adults on the importance of travel health and provision of vaccines required for travel, including missed childhood vaccines.
在旅行前进行前瞻性规划和预防措施可以显著降低许多可通过疫苗预防的旅行相关传染病的风险。由于许多人多次前往传染病高发地区，因此高等教育学生可能面临更高的传染病输入风险。对于国内或国际大学生的健康行为，尤其是来自资源匮乏国家前往资源丰富国家接受教育的学生，人们知之甚少。本研究旨在评估澳大利亚国内和国际大学生样本中的旅行相关健康风险和预防行为。
2010 年，对澳大利亚新南威尔士大学悉尼分校的学生进行了一项 28 项的在线自我管理调查。使用了多种方法来分发在线调查的链接。该调查研究了国际旅行史、旅行意向、感染控制行为和自我报告的疫苗接种史。
共有 1663 名受访者完成了在线调查，其中 22.1%为国际学生，83.9%为本科生。一半的人在过去 12 个月内有过国际旅行，其中 69%的人在这段时间内只旅行过一次，国内学生和国际学生在澳大利亚境外旅行的比例没有差异（p=0.8）。总体而言，寻求旅行前健康咨询的比例很低，68%的受访者表示，在他们最近一次国际旅行前，他们没有向任何卫生专业人员寻求过任何建议。与国际学生相比，国内学生更有可能报告采取了一系列预防旅行健康的措施，包括腹泻药物、驱虫剂、食物禁忌和避孕套（P<0.0001）。总体而言，学生对旅行威胁的风险感知较低，对这些威胁的关注也较低。
我们的研究强调了需要教育学生有关旅行相关风险，并提高在这个高度流动的年轻成年人群体中寻求预防性健康咨询和采取预防保健措施的意识。尽管在澳大利亚的大学学习不需要疫苗接种作为入学要求，但大型高等学府为与年轻人讨论旅行健康的重要性以及提供旅行所需的疫苗提供了机会，包括错过的儿童疫苗。
