Health hazards and medical treatment of volunteers aged 18–30 years working in international social projects of non-governmental organizations (NGO)

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Summary

The specific health risk profile and diversity of treatments sought by young volunteers participating in international social projects should differ from those of their older colleagues. In the absence of any data to identify whether this was correct, a retrospective analysis was performed using a standardized questionnaire.

Questions included what diseases occurred, and details of the frequency and types of treatment sought during their stay – (e.g. self-treatment, medical/dental intervention, or local healer). The 153 participants were aged 18–30 years and worked in a non-governmental organization for >6 months. The participants were: 53% female, mean age 20 years, and mean duration of stay was 11.2 months. Their NGO placement abroad was in Latin America 65.4%, 14.4% in Africa, and 9.8% in Asia. 83% of the young volunteers had received some advice regarding travel medicine before their departure. However, they suffered from more injuries compared to private travellers, and febrile infections were more common when compared to older studies. 21.2% suffered from dental problems and 50% of them sought medical treatment.

This study highlights a previously unreported higher risk profile of specific health problems occurring in young NGO volunteers, including some potentially life-threatening diagnoses that differed from their older colleagues and normal travellers. It is recommended that young volunteers should receive age specific, comprehensive pre-departure training in health and safety, first aid, and management of common health problems. A medical check-up upon returning home should be mandatory. The provision of a basic first aid kit to each volunteer before departure is also recommended.

Introduction

The number of young volunteers working in social projects run by international non-governmental organizations (NGO) is increasing (www.bpb.de; www.weltwaerts.de). Most of these volunteers join such projects soon after graduating from high school. Before travelling to their NGO placement, they receive advice in seminars emphasizing travel medicine topics. These volunteers most commonly sought further pre-travel information from the internet, their family doctor and physicians specializing in travel medicine [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6].

Travelling and staying abroad in unfamiliar environments where the medical infrastructure may be inadequate exposes both travellers and NGO volunteers to a wide spectrum of health risks. Here we focus on the diseases and health problems which had to be treated on the scene by the young NGO volunteers themselves, be it self-treatment or seeking medical treatment. Other parameters such as vaccination status, sexual behaviour, risks at work, preparation of safe food and water, and sanitary hygiene are reported elsewhere [5], [6]. It was postulated that the health problems which have to be managed by young volunteers working in social projects in developing countries differed from those of their older colleagues, and when compared to tourists and business travellers [7], [8], [9], [10]. Unfortunately most of the available studies in this area focused on older populations or on a limited number of variables, e.g. sexual behaviour [11]. Therefore the aim of this study was to identify the health problems that were encountered by these young NGOs during, and immediately after their stay abroad, and to obtain details of the diversity of treatments they sought (self-treatment, treatment by a medical facility, or other). It was proposed that this study's findings should be presented to future young NGOs in their pre-departure seminars to improve their health and safety during their stay abroad, independent of advice offered on sexually transmitted diseases.

Section snippets

Material and methods

To evaluate the incidence and management of any health issue which may have occurred during their stay abroad, a questionnaire was sent to all young volunteers (aged 18 to 30 years) who had spent at least 6 months abroad in a developing country on a NGO social project between 2001 and 2006. Prior to their departure, all these volunteers had attended a training course that included travel medicine issues run by the “fid-Service- und Beratungsstelle in der AGEH”, a German NGO based in Cologne

Results

From the 745 email questionnaires originally sent out, 94 were returned due to invalid addresses. Of the remaining 651 emails, 10 participants answered that they did not fulfil the inclusion criteria. Finally 173 completed questionnaires were returned, but 20 were excluded either because they did not fulfil the inclusion criteria or due to technical errors. This left 153 questionnaires that were evaluated (response rate 23.9% after two reminder emails which were send 4 rsp. 8 weeks after the

Discussion

We investigated the health problems experienced by young German NGO volunteers whose placement was for at least 6 months in Asia, Africa, Latin America, or other countries. The two main differences between our study and that of other study groups investigated so far was: i) most studies involved older participants [11], and ii) our study group received specific training before they departed. Beside other topics, this training included aspects of health and safety. There was no age specific

Conclusion

This study demonstrated new and existing areas of health education that would benefit from greater awareness in pre-departure training. The health risk profile of our young NGO volunteers differed significantly from those of tourists, employees or older NGO volunteers working in developing countries. For example, our young volunteers suffered from more febrile infections, and from injuries (80.6%, with 40.5% treated by a physician). 21.2% suffered from dental problems. 75.5% brought medical

Conflict of interest

None declared.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank fid-Service- und Beratungsstelle in der AGEH in Cologne/Germany for their support in recruiting volunteers.

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