Traveler's diarrhea: epidemiology and impact on visitors to Fortaleza, Brazil
Objective. To assess the epidemiology and impact of traveler's diarrhea (TD) among visitors to the city of Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil, as part of a global study on TD carried out in four countries. Methods. Within a cross-sectional survey, questionnaires were completed by departing travelers at t...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:6ede551debd441bea86c72da0899cda7 2023-05-15T15:16:19+02:00 Traveler's diarrhea: epidemiology and impact on visitors to Fortaleza, Brazil Anamaria Cavalcanti Sue Ann Costa Clemens Frank Von Sonnenburg Françoise Collard Norbert De Clercq Robert Steffen Ralf Clemens 2002-04-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1590/s1020-49892002000400006 https://doaj.org/article/6ede551debd441bea86c72da0899cda7 EN ES PT eng spa por Pan American Health Organization http://www.scielosp.org/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1020-49892002000400006&lng=en&tlng=en https://doaj.org/toc/1020-4989 1020-4989 doi:10.1590/s1020-49892002000400006 https://doaj.org/article/6ede551debd441bea86c72da0899cda7 Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública, Vol 11, Iss 4, Pp 245-252 (2002) Diarrhea travel health behavior Brazil Medicine R Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 article 2002 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1590/s1020-49892002000400006 2022-12-30T23:07:53Z Objective. To assess the epidemiology and impact of traveler's diarrhea (TD) among visitors to the city of Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil, as part of a global study on TD carried out in four countries. Methods. Within a cross-sectional survey, questionnaires were completed by departing travelers at the Fortaleza airport between March 1997 and February 1998. The questions inquired about demographics, duration of stay, reason for their visit, pretravel health advice they had received, risky food and beverage consumption while in Fortaleza, and quality of life during the visit to Fortaleza in relation to having or not having contracted TD. Results. A total of 12 499 questionnaires were analyzed. The most common reason that the visitors gave for their travel to Fortaleza was a holiday (60.3%). The total diarrhea attack rate was 13.4%. Younger people (< 36 years) had significantly higher TD attack rates than did older persons. Using a logistic regression model, we investigated the visitors' risk factors, including age, gender, length of stay, and trip's purpose. According to that analysis, characteristics that are slightly predictive of TD are gender, length of stay, and visiting as a tourist rather than for some other purpose. Characteristics that protect against contracting TD include being older and traveling for business rather than for some other reason. Of those who were incapacitated by TD, the mean duration of the impairment was 42 hours. Conclusions. TD affected the travel plans and activities of many of the visitors to Fortaleza. Further, although aware of the health risks, the majority of those travelers did not avoid all potentially contaminated food or beverage items. Given this pattern of behavior, future efforts to combat TD may have to depend on such other alternative strategies as new vaccines. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública 11 4 245 252 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
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English Spanish Portuguese |
topic |
Diarrhea travel health behavior Brazil Medicine R Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
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Diarrhea travel health behavior Brazil Medicine R Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Anamaria Cavalcanti Sue Ann Costa Clemens Frank Von Sonnenburg Françoise Collard Norbert De Clercq Robert Steffen Ralf Clemens Traveler's diarrhea: epidemiology and impact on visitors to Fortaleza, Brazil |
topic_facet |
Diarrhea travel health behavior Brazil Medicine R Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
description |
Objective. To assess the epidemiology and impact of traveler's diarrhea (TD) among visitors to the city of Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil, as part of a global study on TD carried out in four countries. Methods. Within a cross-sectional survey, questionnaires were completed by departing travelers at the Fortaleza airport between March 1997 and February 1998. The questions inquired about demographics, duration of stay, reason for their visit, pretravel health advice they had received, risky food and beverage consumption while in Fortaleza, and quality of life during the visit to Fortaleza in relation to having or not having contracted TD. Results. A total of 12 499 questionnaires were analyzed. The most common reason that the visitors gave for their travel to Fortaleza was a holiday (60.3%). The total diarrhea attack rate was 13.4%. Younger people (< 36 years) had significantly higher TD attack rates than did older persons. Using a logistic regression model, we investigated the visitors' risk factors, including age, gender, length of stay, and trip's purpose. According to that analysis, characteristics that are slightly predictive of TD are gender, length of stay, and visiting as a tourist rather than for some other purpose. Characteristics that protect against contracting TD include being older and traveling for business rather than for some other reason. Of those who were incapacitated by TD, the mean duration of the impairment was 42 hours. Conclusions. TD affected the travel plans and activities of many of the visitors to Fortaleza. Further, although aware of the health risks, the majority of those travelers did not avoid all potentially contaminated food or beverage items. Given this pattern of behavior, future efforts to combat TD may have to depend on such other alternative strategies as new vaccines. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Anamaria Cavalcanti Sue Ann Costa Clemens Frank Von Sonnenburg Françoise Collard Norbert De Clercq Robert Steffen Ralf Clemens |
author_facet |
Anamaria Cavalcanti Sue Ann Costa Clemens Frank Von Sonnenburg Françoise Collard Norbert De Clercq Robert Steffen Ralf Clemens |
author_sort |
Anamaria Cavalcanti |
title |
Traveler's diarrhea: epidemiology and impact on visitors to Fortaleza, Brazil |
title_short |
Traveler's diarrhea: epidemiology and impact on visitors to Fortaleza, Brazil |
title_full |
Traveler's diarrhea: epidemiology and impact on visitors to Fortaleza, Brazil |
title_fullStr |
Traveler's diarrhea: epidemiology and impact on visitors to Fortaleza, Brazil |
title_full_unstemmed |
Traveler's diarrhea: epidemiology and impact on visitors to Fortaleza, Brazil |
title_sort |
traveler's diarrhea: epidemiology and impact on visitors to fortaleza, brazil |
publisher |
Pan American Health Organization |
publishDate |
2002 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1590/s1020-49892002000400006 https://doaj.org/article/6ede551debd441bea86c72da0899cda7 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública, Vol 11, Iss 4, Pp 245-252 (2002) |
op_relation |
http://www.scielosp.org/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1020-49892002000400006&lng=en&tlng=en https://doaj.org/toc/1020-4989 1020-4989 doi:10.1590/s1020-49892002000400006 https://doaj.org/article/6ede551debd441bea86c72da0899cda7 |
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https://doi.org/10.1590/s1020-49892002000400006 |
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Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública |
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11 |
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