Research from InterHealth - Clean Bill of Health

30 December 2010

Research undertaken by InterHealth this year has shown that short-term travellers need to be educated about health risks.

From talking to their patients every day, our clinicians are able to gain a good understanding of our clients' requirements and how useful our services are to them. However, to truly see the bigger picture and to progress successfully, it is important to obtain statistical evidence.

This is why InterHealth has recently submitted its first research paper for publication, concerning health problems facing short-term overseas volunteers. By using data from clients seen at our clinic as well as those who send screening forms, we can find answers to questions such as the relationship, if any, between pre-existing health conditions and post-travel health concerns; demographic- and country-specific health risks; as well as the prevalence of common travel health risks such as diarrhoea and malaria.

Findings

The research was carried out retrospectively using returned Clean Bill of Health forms from travellers who had been on overseas placements of less than one year. Just some of the things we found included:

34.5% of individuals took at least one sick day from their placement.
14.8% of individuals suffered from at least one bout of severe or recurrent diarrhoea. At-risk groups included: the under 20s, those who went to Latin America, and those who travelled for 4-6 months.
13.3% claimed to have put themselves at risk of schistosomiasis (bilharzia).
9.6 % reported on going diarrhoea or change from normal bowel pattern upon return.

The study shows that even short-term travellers face health risks abroad. For instance, the statistic of exposure to bilharzia emphasises the need to educate travellers about high risk areas. Following this study the Clean Bill of Health form, now known as Short Term Screening: Post Travel, has been redesigned to ensure that we are collecting all the information we require both to ensure correct clinical follow up and for research purposes.

What next?

We want to continue to learn from our clients' overseas health experiences, and we hope to tackle more research questions. Some planned projects for the future include monitoring returned aid workers from Haiti to determine the impact of the disaster upon them and adherence to malaria prophylaxis.

A full detailed article about our Clean Bill of Health research will be published in the February issue of TravelWell News, which is sent out to our TravelWell Plan subscribers.

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