The various repellents and other modes of bite avoidance for travelers have recently been the subject of an evidence-based review.[3]
There has been surprisingly little research conducted on the way that travelers follow bite-avoidance advice or use repellents in practice. It could be argued that bite avoidance is viewed in the same way as any chemoprophylactic agent to protect against malaria; it is only effective if the individual adheres to the regimen prescribed. Yet although work has been conducted defining levels of adherence, attitudes, and behaviors regarding antimalarials,[4-6] this is not the case for bite avoidance.
There is also little data available concerning compliance to insect repellent use, although it has been stated that it is generally less than to malaria chemoprophylaxis.[7] In retrospective questionnaire-based studies of travelers[8] and field studies in servicemen,[9] adherence to bite recommendations does appear to be low. Further, the attitudes of travelers to the recommended bite-avoidance measures have not been rigorously investigated to date.
This study will describe an often neglected but central area to the success of bite-avoidance methods: the extent to which the user will apply bite-avoidance measures. An aim of this study is to investigate the use of an attitude toward bite-avoidance measures questionnaire and explore how these attitudes might influence behavior.