ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Motion sickness among passengers is increasing. The objective of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitudes and susceptibility of commercial air travelers to motion sickness in order to sensitise the populace of motion sickness and help exact policy changes. METHODOLOGY: A descriptive cross-sectional study design, consisting of three hundred and seventy-four air travelers in Benin airport, Benin City participated in this study. The respondents were selected using systematic sampling technique. Instrument for data collection was an interviewer administered questionnaire. Data was analyzed using the IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for windows, version 22.0 software (Armonk, NY: IBM Corp USA) with level of significance was set at p<0.05 and 95% confidence interval. RESULTS: All Three hundred and seventy-four air travelers had heard of the term motion sickness while over two third [296(79.1%)] of them had good knowledge of motion sickness. Sex (p = 0.014), highest level of education (p < 0.001), and pregnancy status (p = 0.003) were significant factors association with knowledge of motion sickness among air travelers. Two hundred and seventy-six [276(73.8%)] of the air travelers had poor perception of motion sickness with age (p = 0.002), sex (p < 0.001), and pregnancy status (p < 0.001) were identified as significant factors associated with perception of motion sickness. Alcoholic beverages [128(34.2%)], medication use [132(32.3%)], walking long distance before boarding [107(28.6%)], delayed flight [104(27.8%)], and stress [121(32.4%)] were identified as risk factors towards MS. Susceptibility to MS was found to be moderate for car (69.5%) and bus (51.9%) and low for boat (83.7%) and aeroplane (51.3%). CONCLUSION: Majority of the respondents had good knowledge of MS. Majority of study participant had poor perception towards MS. This study has identified consumption of alcoholic xvi beverages, medication use, walking long distance before boarding, delayed flight and stress as risk factors towards MS. Susceptibility towards motion sickness was highest among car travelers compared to buses, boats and aeroplanes respectively. KEYWORDS: Airport, Commercial Air Traveler, Benin City, Motion Sickness, Edo State.
