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British Travellers ignore killer condition

British travellers show an alarming lack of knowledge about a potentially fatal travel-related condition, major international research has revealed.

Less than half of Brits who have flown in the past year (48%) are aware of the risk of travel-related deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and few take precautions such as walking around (41%), drinking plenty of water (27%) and wearing flight socks (10%).

However, Britons compare favourably with 11 other European nations questioned for the Scholl Flight Socks commissioned travel health survey.

In Germany, just 16% of travellers are aware of the dangers of travel-related DVT, plummeting to 6% of French and a mere 3% of Italians.

But when it comes to recognising the specific risk posed by car and coach trips, British travellers do not score so highly.

Less than a third (32%) of Brits aware of the risk of travel-related DVT realise this also applies to long trips by car, compared to 42% of Germans, 74% of Dutch and 85% of Poles.

And although more Brits (51%) recognise the risk of extended coach journeys, this score still means we scrape in fourth with only the Swiss (45%), Belgians (36%) and French (30%) less knowledgeable.

Leading haematologist Paul Giangrande said: "It's good British travellers are among the most knowledgeable about travel-related DVT, but worrying that so few realise this applies to any long journey of four hours or more, including those by car, coach and train.

"It's long periods of immobility that enhance the risk, but just a few simple precautions, such as regular leg exercises, drinking plenty of water and wearing flight socks can greatly reduce this."

Despite stories of stressed workers being unable to take annual leave, the survey revealed Brits are the top holiday lovers on the continent. More than two-fifths (21%) of us said we take three or more holidays a year, compared to 17% of French, 16% of Spanish, 8% of Germans and a miserly 6% of Italians.

Still with Venice voted Europe's most popular destination (22%) the Italians scarcely need to leave home shores - although Britons prefer Spanish climes with 31% voting for the attractions of Barcelona.

By comparison, only 8% of us said we would holiday in London - although the capital came a respectable fourth across the continent (12%) behind only Venice, Barcelona (21%) and Paris (16%).

The poll also discovered Kylie remains the nation's darling with more than a quarter (26%) of males naming the petite Antipodean as their ideal travelling companion.

But David Beckham was beaten into second place claiming 16% of the vote as compared to our number one choice, George Clooney (20%).

2400 people were polled for the survey, 200 in each country. Participating countries were Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom