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Survey of motion sickness susceptibility in children and adolescents aged 3 months to 18 years

Journal of Neurology volume 266, pages 65–73 (2019)Cite this article

Abstract

We conducted two representative, cross-sectional, population-based surveys on the susceptibility to motion sickness (MSS) in childhood: One was targeted at parents with children aged 6 months to 18 years (7569 households approached) and the other at parents with children aged 3 months to 5 years (12,720 households approached). In both surveys 3285 parents provided information on 5041 children. The main findings in the first survey were: 369 children (9.2%) were susceptible to motion sickness with a slight female preponderance, and in the second study 16 (1.2%) were susceptible; first occurrence of motion sickness (MS) below the age of 1 year was exceptionally rare (n = 2); if MS occurred after the age of 1 year it was more severe in the younger children, most pronounced between the age of 6 and 9 years; the frequency of MSS was highest in the range between the age of 4 and 13 years; in postpubertal children and adolescents MSS frequency declined. The course of MSS frequency from infancy to adolescence is an inverse U-shaped curve. It is characterised by three phases which may be related to the visual-vestibular mismatch theory, the major pathophysiological cause of MS. Phase one is a high resistance in the first year of life. In this phase infants may be less subject to visual-vestibular mismatch, because they do not yet use visual cues for self-motion perception. Phase two is a prepubertal peak. This is possibly due to an oversensitivity to a visual-vestibular mismatch, which reflects sensorimotor maturation. Phase three is a postpubertal decline. This can be explained by habituation through repetitive motion stimulation during various kinds of vehicle transportations.

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Acknowledgement

The authors thank Katie Göttlinger for copyediting the manuscript. The study was supported by the German Ministry of Education and Research, the IFBLMU, and the Hertie Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, German Center for Vertigo and Balance Disorders, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany

    Doreen Huppert

  2. German Center for Vertigo and Balance Disorders, Institute for Medical Information, Processing, Biometrics and Epidemiology (IBE), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany

    Eva Grill

  3. German Center for Vertigo and Balance Disorders, Institute for Clinical Neurosciences, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Marchioninistr. 15, 81377, Munich, Germany

    Thomas Brandt

Authors
  1. Doreen Huppert
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  2. Eva Grill
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  3. Thomas Brandt
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Correspondence to Doreen Huppert.

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Authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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The authors state that they complied with ethical standards and the study was in accord with the Helsinki declaration.

Additional information

This manuscript is part of a supplement sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research within the funding initiative for integrated research and treatment centers.

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Huppert, D., Grill, E. & Brandt, T. Survey of motion sickness susceptibility in children and adolescents aged 3 months to 18 years. J Neurol 266 (Suppl 1), 65–73 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-019-09333-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-019-09333-w

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