Motion sickness: effect of the magnitude of roll and pitch oscillation

Joseph, Judith A. and Griffin, Michael J. (2008) Motion sickness: effect of the magnitude of roll and pitch oscillation. Aviation, Space and Environmental Medicine, 79 (4), 390-396. (doi:10.3357/ASEM.2196.2008).

Abstract

Background: Rotational oscillation in roll and pitch can cause motion sickness, but it is not known how sickness depends on the magnitude of rotational oscillation or whether there is a difference between the two axes of motion.
Hypothesis: It was hypothesized that motion sickness would increase similarly with increasing magnitudes of roll and pitch oscillation.
Method: There were 120 subjects (6 groups of 20 subjects) who were exposed to 30 min of 0.2-Hz sinusoidal roll or pitch oscillation at 1 of 3 magnitudes: 1) ± 1.83°; 2) ± 3.66°; or 3) ± 7.32°. Subjects sitting in a closed cabin with their eyes open gave ratings of their illness on a 7-point illness rating scale at 1-min intervals.
Results: Over the six conditions, mild nausea was reported by 17.5% of subjects. With both roll oscillation and pitch oscillation, mean illness ratings were least with ± 1.83° of rotational oscillation and greater with ± 3.66° and ± 7.32° of oscillation. At none of the three magnitudes of oscillation was there a significant difference in motion sickness caused by roll and pitch oscillation.
Conclusions: With rotational oscillation about an Earth-horizontal axis, there is a trend for motion sickness to increase with increasing motion magnitude. For the conditions investigated, similar motion sickness was caused by roll and pitch oscillation.

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Contributors

Author: Michael J. Griffin

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