Travel health needs and medication self-management among travellers using GLP-1-based medicines: a netnographic study

Abstract Background Use of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1)-based medicines is expanding, while travel-specific evidence remains limited. Travellers must maintain treatment as transport, accommodation, food and daily routines change. This study explored travel-health needs, treatment workload, capacity and medication self-management in online accounts of planned and experienced travel. Methods A qualitative netnographic study examined 129 publicly accessible English-language discussions from Reddit, TripAdvisor and Mumsnet concerning current or recent GLP-1-based medicine use and actual or planned travel. Inductive coding identified reported actions, concerns and adaptations before the Cumulative Complexity Model guided a second interpretive stage. Cross-sectional comparison by travel status described differences in retrieved content, and sensitivity analysis excluded 20 compounded-tirzepatide records. Results Analysis identified four linked findings: travel-related treatment workload and continuity, practical capacity for medication management, medication self-management and travel adaptations, and a cross-sectional pattern by travel status. Planned/upcoming records contained information seeking in 41/62 (66%) and medication logistics in 35/62 (56%), whereas experienced/current records contained eating and activity adaptation in 45/53 (85%). Suitable storage, itinerary flexibility, prior treatment experience and reliable guidance supported medication management. Travellers either maintained treatment while adapting travel practices or described moving, delaying, reducing or interrupting a dose when treatment and itinerary demands conflicted. Conclusions GLP-1-based medicines add travel-specific dosing, storage, tolerability, hydration and eating demands to medication-management problems already recognised in travel medicine. Planned and experienced records emphasised different problems, but the groups involved different contributors and do not show within-person change. Pre-travel assessment should address medication and itinerary fit, with treatment changes reviewed by the prescribing clinician and practical travel requirements addressed through authoritative travel-service information. Product-specific prescribing information should inform storage and dosing discussions.