Susceptibility to seasickness: influence of hull design and steaming direction

Abstract

Three sea going vessels steamed side by side through slight seas off the coast of Oahu, Hi. A 4-h octagon was transmitted twice each day for three consecutive days while motion sickness symptomatology was recorded from 18 enlisted men who alternated among the vessels. Dramatic differences in illness severity were obtained whether comparisons were made using objective evidence of vomiting episodes or subjective reporting of symptoms on questionnaires. Reliability of this scoring method was excellent (r = .95). In addition to face and construct validity, evidence is presented of the predictive validity of the scoring method in a separate octagonal steaming experiment using a 95 ft Coast Guard patrol boat in an equivalent experimental paradigm. This study showed significant covariance between the magnitude of motion sickness symptomatology and the encounter direction of the vessel to the primary swell (p less than 0.01). Additionally, significant correlations were found between sickness severity and test subject concentration, fatigue, urine production, and urine specific gravity. The majority of these relationships would not have been disclosed had only the dichotomous criterion of vomit/nonvomit been employed in assessing motionsickness severity. Implications of these data as design criteria for marine vehicles are discussed.