Journal Article

Travel patterns, pretravel preparation, and travel-associated morbidity in travelers with diabetes in Taiwan

Lee, Yi-Chen, Lee, Yi-Hsuan, Lu, Chia-Wen, Huang, Kuo-Chin

2025

Overview

International travel poses unique health risks for individuals with diabetes. This study explored their travel patterns, preparations, and morbidity, as well as identify factors influencing pre-travel health-seeking behavior from primary healthcare providers. This cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study recruited adults with diabetes who had traveled internationally within the past 12 months. Data on sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, travel patterns, preparations, and travel-associated morbidity were collected via questionnaires and electronic medical records. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify predictors of patients informing physicians about travel plans. Among 250 participants (median age: 65 years [57–69]; median HbA1c: 7.1 % [6.6–7.9]), 16.4 % were on insulin therapy. The median travel duration was 6 days (5–10), with a median of one time zone crossed. Insulin-treated individuals tended to plan shorter trips to closer destinations than their non-insulin-treated counterparts. While 70.8 % of participants carried medicines for acute illness, only 10.8 % informed their primary care physicians about travel plans, and 11.2 % experienced travel-associated morbidity, including acute illness, falls, and hypoglycemia. Predictors of informing physicians about travel plans included travel duration exceeding ten days (OR: 4.87, 95 % CI: 1.34–17.63), insulin therapy (OR: 4.37, 95 % CI: 1.21–15.80), taking preventive measures against hypoglycemia during travel (OR: 3.40, 95 % CI: 1.26–9.14), and good antidiabetic medication adherence (OR: 2.96, 95 % CI: 1.10–7.96). This study underscored the impact of diabetes self-care practices on pre-travel health-seeking behavior and demonstrated how insulin therapy shapes travel patterns, highlighting the need for reinforced self-management skills and targeted pre-travel guidance, especially for insulin-treated patients. •Insulin-treated individuals plan shorter trips to closer destinations than their non-insulin-treated counterparts.•Travel-related morbidities in people with diabetes are typically mild and rarely require medical assistance while abroad.•Diabetes self-care skills are positively associated with travelers informing their primary care physicians of travel plans.

• Publisher: Elsevier Ltd,Elsevier Limited
• Subject: Aged / Antidiabetics / Body mass index / Chronic illnesses / Cross-Sectional Studies / Diabetes / Diabetes Mellitus - drug therapy / Diabetes Mellitus - epidemiology / Disease prevention / Electronic health records / Family physicians / Female / Glucose / Health risks / Health-seeking / Hospitals / Humans / Hypoglycemia / Hypoglycemic Agents - therapeutic use / Infectious Disease / Infectious diseases / Insulin / Insulin - therapeutic use / International travel / Male / Medical records / Middle Aged / Morbidity / Outpatient care facilities / Pandemics / Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Pre-travel advice / Primary care / Questionnaires / Regression analysis / Surveys and Questionnaires / Taiwan - epidemiology / Time zones / Travel / Travel - statistics & numerical data