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Omodior, O., Pennington-Gray, L., Holland, S., Thapa, B., Kiousis, S. (2017). Chikungunya Disease Awareness Among U.S. Travelers to Caribbean Destinations. International Journal of Travel Medicine and Global Health, 5(1), 20-27. doi: 10.15171/ijtmgh.2017.04
Oghenekaro Omodior; Lori Pennington-Gray; Stephen Holland; Brijesh Thapa; Spiro Kiousis. "Chikungunya Disease Awareness Among U.S. Travelers to Caribbean Destinations". International Journal of Travel Medicine and Global Health, 5, 1, 2017, 20-27. doi: 10.15171/ijtmgh.2017.04
Omodior, O., Pennington-Gray, L., Holland, S., Thapa, B., Kiousis, S. (2017). 'Chikungunya Disease Awareness Among U.S. Travelers to Caribbean Destinations', International Journal of Travel Medicine and Global Health, 5(1), pp. 20-27. doi: 10.15171/ijtmgh.2017.04
Omodior, O., Pennington-Gray, L., Holland, S., Thapa, B., Kiousis, S. Chikungunya Disease Awareness Among U.S. Travelers to Caribbean Destinations. International Journal of Travel Medicine and Global Health, 2017; 5(1): 20-27. doi: 10.15171/ijtmgh.2017.04

Chikungunya Disease Awareness Among U.S. Travelers to Caribbean Destinations

Article 4, Volume 5, Issue 1, Winter 2017, Page 20-27  XML PDF (263 K)
Document Type: Original Article
DOI: 10.15171/ijtmgh.2017.04
Authors
Oghenekaro Omodior 1; Lori Pennington-Gray2; Stephen Holland2; Brijesh Thapa2; Spiro Kiousis3
1Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Studies, School of Public Health, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, USA
2Department of Tourism, Recreation & Sport Management, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA
3College of Journalism and Communications, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA
Abstract
Introduction: This study investigated chikungunya disease awareness and its predictors, the level of adoption of recommended personal protective behaviors against chikungunya, and the health information-seeking behavior of U.S. travelers to Caribbean destinations.
Methods: A cross-sectional retrospective online survey of 653 adult U.S. international travelers who visited any one of 34 Caribbean destinations was conducted in October 2015. Study participants were recruited through Amazon® Mechanical Turk. Travelers who met the inclusion criteria and gave informed consent were subsequently redirected to complete the survey which was domiciled in Qualtrics®.
Results: Results regarding health information-seeking behavior indicated that 51% of study participants had never sought information about chikungunya or any vector-borne illnesses. Only thirty percent of study participants reported having heard of chikungunya disease before participating in this study. After adjusting for the presence of other variables in a logistic regression model, gender of female, higher levels of education, more time spent at the destination, and a higher number of hours spent engaging in outdoor activities were factors significantly associated with chikungunya disease awareness. Study results also showed that twenty-two percent of study participants did not engage in any of the three recommended personal protective behaviors under investigation.
Conclusion: Study findings highlighted a gap in existing approaches to health information dissemination vis-à-vis adoption of recommended personal protective behaviors, especially for U.S. travelers at risk for chikungunya and other emerging mosquito-borne infectious diseases in Caribbean destinations.
Keywords
Chikungunya awareness; U.S. travelers; Caribbean destination; Personal-protective behavior
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