The Motion Sickness Questionnaire (MSQ)

 

Subparts:

(1) childhood experiences (up to the age of 12) with motion sickness in 9 types of transportation

(2) experiences with motion sickness in 9 types of transportation during the past 10 years

 

Types of transport:

(1) cars

(2) buses

(3) trains

(4) airplanes

(5) small boats

(6) ships

(7) swings

(8) roundabouts (rotating amusement park ride)

(9) big dippers (swing amusement park ride)

 

Number of Experiences with Each Type of Transport	Points
none	0
1 to 4	1
5 to 10	2
11 or more	3

 

 

The person is then asked about the 9 different types of transportation and asked:

(1) how often s/he felt sick, quesy or nauseated in the vehicle

(2) how often s/he actually vomited

 

Frequency for Each Symptom on Each Transport

never

rarely

sometimes

frequently

always

 

The final points for each transport experienced is weighted using the following table:

 

Symptoms	Experiences = 1	Experiences = 2	Experiences = 3
never	0	0	0
rarely	2	3	4
sometimes	4	5	6
frequently	6	7	8
always	8	9	10

 

subscore for each part =

= ((SUM(final points for feeling sick on all types of transport experienced)) + (SUM(final points for vomiting on all types of transport experienced))) / (number of types of transport experienced) * 9

 

total score =

= (points for subscore during childhood) + (points for subscore during past 10 years)

 

Interpretation:

• minimum subscore and total score: 0

• maximum subscore: 180 (90 points for feeling sick and 90 points for being sick)

• maximum total score: 360

• The higher the total score the greater the motion sickness experience.

 

NOTE: Because of the length of each subscore I only implemented 1 in the spreadsheet. A complete implementation would be fairly long.

 

Limitations:

• Questionnaires are subject to a number of biases.

• The score may underestimate a person's susceptibility if (a) the person fails to recall incidents, (b) the person's travel experiences are limited, or (c) intentionally tries to mislead.

• The score may overestimate a person's susceptibility if (a) the person inflates symptoms, (b) concurrent illness was present, (c) the experiences were minor relative to the overall travel event (a person being sick once during a violent storm on a long cruise).