Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease
Volume 9, Issue 6 , Pages 278-283, November 2011

Travel clinic communication and non-adherence to malaria chemoprophylaxis☆

  • Lorna Farquharson

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, UK
    • ,
  • Lorraine M. Noble

      Affiliations

    • UCL Medical School, Holborn Union Building 4th Level, Archway Campus, 2-10 Highgate Hill, London N19 5LW, UK
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +44 20 72883378; fax: +44 20 72883322.
    • ,
  • Ron H. Behrens

      Affiliations

    • Hospital for Tropical Diseases Travel Clinic, London, UK
    • London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK

Received 18 January 2011; received in revised form 14 September 2011; accepted 19 September 2011. published online 31 October 2011.

Summary 

Many travellers fail to take malaria chemoprophylaxis, despite receiving pre-travel advice. This study examined whether non-adherence could be predicted from verbal communication in the pre-travel consultation, and whether non-adherence was related to the quality of clinician–traveller communication.

The consultations of one hundred and thirty consecutive travellers at a UK travel clinic were audiotaped and a follow-up telephone interview was used to assess adherence to malaria chemoprophylaxis. Experienced travel clinic staff were asked to predict adherence and rate the quality of communication from eighteen transcripts of consultations (nine good and nine poor adherence).

Clinic staff predicted adherence to malaria chemoprophylaxis significantly better than chance. Poor adherence was related to poor quality communication. Clinic staff provided criteria for good quality clinician–traveller communication.

It is concluded that predictors of non-adherence can be identified during the pre-travel consultation. Clinic staff could employ specific communication strategies to improve the effectiveness of consultations.

Keywords: Malaria, Communication, Consultation, Prophylaxis, Compliance

To access this article, please choose from the options below

Login to an existing account or Register a new account.

  • Purchase this article for 12.00 USD (You must login/register to purchase this article)

    Online access for 24 hours. The PDF version can be downloaded as your permanent record.

  • Subscribe to this title

    Get unlimited online access to this article and all other articles in this title 24/7 for one year.

  • Claim access now

    For current subscribers with Society Membership or Account Number.

  • Visit SciVerse ScienceDirect to see if you have access via your institution.
 

☆ Presented as an oral presentation at the 3rd Northern European Conference on Travel Medicine, Hamburg, 26–29 May 2010: Non-adherence to malaria chemoprophylaxis: can it be predicted from communication in the pre-travel consultation?

PII: S1477-8939(11)00091-3

doi:10.1016/j.tmaid.2011.09.004

Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease
Volume 9, Issue 6 , Pages 278-283, November 2011

Article Tools