Authors

Objectives: to determine the sociodemographic characteristics o

Position

¹Enfermera del Centro de Vacunación Internacional de Vigo. Máster en Ciencias de la Enfermería. 

Contact address

Ana Crespo Alonso C/ Pazo Solita, 8, R4-1º E. 36212 Vigo.

Contact email: anacrespo@gmail.com

Abstract

Objectives: to determine the sociodemographic characteristics of the traveller and travel profile of those individuals that present to the International Vaccination Center (CVI) in Vigo, as well as the identification of the previous recommended and administered vaccination and degree of compliance and also to determine the frequency of prescribed antimalarial treatments.
Material and method: cross-sectional descriptive study on a sample of 506 travellers who presented to the CVI during june, july and august 2008. A questionnaire prior to the travel was filled out by the travellers. Sociodemographic variables, characteristics of the trip and vaccine requirements were studied. Descriptive statistics and statistical inference indexes were calculated using the chi squared test.
Results: profile of the travel and traveller: male, 35 años, spanish, who comes to the CVI for the first time, por vez primera, the consultatation was made 15 to 30 days in advance, tourist trip to sub-Saharan Africa, stays of 15-30 days, an average of 3,12 vaccines were recommended and an average of 2,83 vaccines were administered . The most common previous vaccination was hepatitis B (HB) with 24,9%, tetanus-diphtheria (Td) with 57,7% and yellow fever with 9,5%. Compliance with vaccination was above 90% for all recommended vaccines except for HB (68,8%) and Td (83,4%).
Conclusions: a large majority of travelers come to the consultation office less than a month before the trip, especially if it is for professional reasons, although the WHO recommends 4-6 weeks in advance. It is therefore necessary to teach health education and vaccination in companies with employees that might have to travel imminently. There is a high compliance with vaccine recommendations, related to the provision and availability of all vaccines needed in the CVI. It is necessary to achieve greater involvement of health centers in vaccination and medical assistance to the traveler, especially with regard to the hepatitis B and tetanus-diphtheria vaccines.

Keywords:

descriptive study; research; Travellervaccinations

Versión en Español

Título:

Perfil del viajero en un Centro de Vacunación Internacional