Resources used by general practitioners for advising travelers from New Zealand

Background:The risks of the destination and any specific requirements for t ravel health advice may be obtained from a variety of resources. This study was designed to investigate the usefulness of various resources available in New Zealand for providing travel health advice and the extent to which G Ps used these resources in providing travel health advice. Method: Four hundred GPs (400/2830) were randomly selected from the registe r of the New Zealand Medical Council and sent self-administered questionnai res. Two reminders were sent. Results: Three hundred and thirty-two (332/400, 83%) GPs responded. The use fulness of various resources was reported, including Health Advice for Over seas Travellers (277/289, 96%), New Ethicals (256/278, 92%), New Zealand Pu blic Health Report (79/164, 48%), InternationalTravel and Health (41/144, 2 8%), computerized databases (6/122, 5%), journals (14/130, 11%), and other resources (44/139, 32%). Health Advice for Overseas Travellers was regarded as significantly more useful than InternationalTravel and Health (chi (2) = 4,68, df = 1, p < .05). Only 23% (70/309) of respondents indicated that t hey always used these resources in their practice of travel medicine. Fifty percent (154/309) of respondents indicated that they usually used these re sources, while 27% (83/309) of respondents indicated that they used these r esources sometimes. Only 1% (2/309) of GPs did not use resources at all for their practice of travel medicine. Conclusions: The most useful resource was Health Advice for Overseas Travel lers, which outlines the New Zealand recommendations for medical practition ers providing travel health advice. It may be useful for GPs to gain access to and training in association with a greater range of specialist resource s to use in conjunction with the provision of travel health advice. These m ight include international guidelines, journals, and access to computerized databases and the internet. With the recent introduction of a widely acces sible computerized database in New Zealand, follow-up studies could be inst ituted to determine if GPs' use of computerized databases becomes more wide spread and whether access to and use of these computerized databases influe nces the provision of travel health advice by GPs. Further studies are need ed to examine the appropriateness of the advice provided by the various res ources used by GPs in New Zealand.