Awareness Level of Visual Treatment to Reduce Motion Sickness Symptom in Inter-Island Ship Passenger

Abstract

Increasing usage of inter-island transportation in Indonesia over the years and the characteristic of Indonesian waters in inducing motion sickness (MS), have attracted the authors’ attention to study deeper about MS symptom within the ship passengers in conjunction with its existing treatment and observe the response about possible alternative through visual intervention. Bali-Lombok area will be taken as case study following up the result of the survey, considering their important role in Indonesia tourism business with high density of tourist and locals utilizing sea transportation to reach attraction spots. Survey was done using online questionnaires to gather information about MS experience, severity, and passengers’ enthusiast for an alternative MS treatment by visual intervention. The questionnaire was filled by Indonesian as many as 300 respondents which 119 of them had experience MS and expressed their severity by completing Motion Sickness Assessment Questionnaire (MSAQ). As of today, ro-ro ferry as a well-known sea transportation in Indonesia, had proved to be the highest usage among participants from any occupation except for government and public employee. Furthermore, 80 participants out of the one experienced MS, felt the symptoms on board when the ship was sailing confirming relationship between movement and MS. Moreover, observation about severity level described drug therapy as top-of-mind therapy, followed by closing eyes or sleep. Even though some participants had awareness about correlation between eye and vision to treat MS symptom within moderate severity MS region, the treatment was not popular to carry out. However, based on data gathered, participants determined their interest to have opportunity in MS visual based treatment.