Prevalence and Level of Motion Sickness among the General Public of Mangaluru

Background: Motion sickness or kinetosis, also known as travel sickness, is a condition in which a disagreement exists between visually perceived movement and the vestibular system’s sense of movement. It is an ancient problem, having afflicted humans for thousands of years. Nearly all people experience motion sickness if given strong enough motion stimuli. Its basis is largely unknown but is believed to be caused by a combination of inner ear disturbances and over-stimulation of the optic nerve due to either real or apparent movement. In our environment, paucity of knowledge abounds on this condition regarding its prevalence and susceptibility as very little or no studies have been carried out on the subject. This influenced the inception of the study. Objective: 1.To determines the prevalence of motion sickness among the general public. 2. To assess the level of motion sickness among the general public. Methods: A descriptive survey approach was used for the study. Three hundred and forty nine samples participated in the study and were selected through purposive sampling technique. Data was collected using a demographic proforma and Motion Sickness Assessment Questionnaire (MSAQ). Results: Majority (60.8%) of the participants were females. Highest percentage (38.2%) travelled by road for a distance of more than 50 kilometers up to 10 times in a year. Least percentage (10%) suffered from migraine. Highest percentage (39.4%) had any of their family members suffering from motion sickness. Prevalence of motion sickness was found to be 42.9%. Among the participants who had motion sickness majority (49.29 %) had gastrointestinal related symptoms, followed by peripheral symptoms (43.5%), sopite related was 34.4 % and least symptoms were seen in cardiac (28.3%).