Researchers are exploring how engaging in any form of tourism can improve suboptimal health status, writes Dr Jun Wen.
In these post-pandemic times, we have found ourselves increasingly concerned about one another’s health. Now that we have an appreciation for how it feels to live through the added stress of a pandemic, it seems that we have just a little more authenticity in our voices when we ask a friend or colleague, “How are you?”
We, as a society, are mindful of not only physical health, but also psychological or mental health. Doctors are hearing more complaints from their patients on what are not detectable by laboratory procedures, including concerns such as chronic fatigue, back pain and headaches.
Do these complaints really matter? We tend to pass these small inconveniences off as not getting enough sleep, pulling a muscle, or stress, but scientists at the Suboptimal Health Study Consortium (SHSC) are learning that these complaints may indicate more than a temporary inconvenience.
Under the leadership of Professor Wei Wang (Centre for Precision Health, Edith Cowan University), researchers are studying suboptimal health status (SHS), a global health concern that is defined as a reversible physical state between health and disease.
A simple questionnaire has been developed to detect SHS, which has been validated among African Asian and Caucasian populations as a generic tool for health measure. People presenting with SHS tend to have varying health complaints accompanied by anxiety or depression and fatigue, and the sum of these conditions can have effects on mental health and the cardiovascular, digestive, and immune systems.
Risk factors are broadly considered to be related to environmental and lifestyle factors and include smoking, work stress, air and noise pollution, lack of exercise, and poor dietary choices. Understanding SHS is important when one considers the proven links between SHS and chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Motivated by the widespread prevalence of SHS and the implications of not addressing it, Prof Wang recently enlisted the expertise of a multidisciplinary team to explore a unique way to address the SHS concern: tourism.
This is in fact the first study to introduce SHS to the field of tourism, and tourism to the field of global health focusing on SHS.
You may wonder, is it really possible to prescribe a holiday when patients aren’t feeling well? Understanding more about the benefits of tourism may help to consider how those holiday experiences can be seen as a potent form of ‘medicine’ for individuals with SHS.
Researchers have demonstrated that tourism can improve a person’s wellbeing, which is a complex state that, in a broad sense, describes a person’s quality of life. Tourism experiences promote positive psychology, optimism, relaxation, and personal growth. Physical activity and leisure experiences tend to happen simultaneously with tourism, and both exercise and leisure experiences are powerful tools to promote wellness.
The multidisciplinary team from the SHSC analysed questionnaire responses from 360 Chinese tourists and looked for correlations between SHS and tourism-related characteristics. Overall prevalence of SHS was 36.4%. Study participants who reported longer sleep at night and more physical activity had lower prevalence of SHS.
People with SHS who travelled frequently reported better mental health than those who did not travel often. The tourists who traveled more frequently also had a better immune status, not all that surprising given the known positive correlation between physical activity and the immune system.
Tourism is available in various forms to almost everyone and this is what makes the results of this study so powerful. While SHS is a global concern, tourism as a treatment intervention can be used by people living with SHS everywhere.
Tourism does not have to be extravagant with a high cost. Tourism can be as simple as a nature hike, a museum visit, or a camping trip. The benefits of the experience are just as valuable as an elaborate transcontinental trip.
These benefits may carry over to the ageing population and to those with complex conditions such as dementia. The tourism industry rapidly developed virtual tourism experiences in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and this technology could enable individuals with complex conditions and physical limitations to enjoy the benefits of travel.
When we consider the economic and emotional toll that poor health takes on society, it is exciting to imagine how the research happening at the SHSC will inspire others to expand the way they approach this and other topics of global significance.
ED: Dr. Jun Wen is a lecturer in Tourism and Service Marketing at the School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University (ECU), Australia. His current research interests lie in global health, tourism marketing, and travel medicine.