A scoping review for clinical diagnostic criteria, and their psychometric properties in diagnosing Motion sickness

Motion sickness is a frequent condition resulting from conflicting sensory signals between the eyes, vestibular system, and body, leading to symptoms like nausea, vomiting, dizziness, headache, sweating, pallor, drowsiness, and increased salivation. Although tools such as the Motion Sickness Susceptibility Questionnaire (MSSQ), Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ), and the Motion Sickness Assessment Questionnaire (MSAQ) are widely used. Most available tests rely on subjective symptom reports, which impacts diagnostic accuracy across diverse populations. This scoping review aims to summarize clinical diagnostic criteria and psychometric properties (reliability, validity, sensitivity, and specificity) of motion sickness assessment tools. Following the PCC framework (Population: individuals with motion sickness ; Concept: diagnostic tools/criteria; Context: psychometric properties), The search was conducted from 2015 to 2025 three electronic databases . the review screened a total of 17,295 articles were identified through searches in databases like PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane, and Science Direct. Duplicate removal using Mendeley resulted in the exclusion of 11,768 records, 5,527 articles remained for title and abstract screening. Out of these, 5,500 were excluded, leaving 27 for full-text review. Ultimately, 8 studies met the inclusion criteria. The review was compiled in accordance to PRISMA extension for scoping review (PRISMA-ScR) Guidelines. Motion sickness susceptibility questionnaire (MSSQ), Simulator sickness questionnaire (SSQ), Motion Sickness Severity Scale (MSSS), Fast Motion Sickness Questionnaire (FMSQ) (demonstrates good test retest reliability and strong criterion validity and high sensitivity change in symptom severity and moderate specificity), Motion Sickness Assessment Questionnaire (MSAQ) (demonstrates excellent reliability and strong validity for assessing motion sickness severity across multiple symptoms domains. The scale shows high internal consistency (cronbach’s alpha 0.90-0.95) . Test retest reliability has been reported as good to excellent approximately 0.85-0.92). The Visually Induced Motion Sickness Susceptibility Questionnaire VIMSSQ (demonstrate robust internal consistency, reliability, and sensitivity to motion sickness symptoms .The strong reliability and detects differences by age and sex , Motion sickness susceptibility questionnaire (MSSQ) offers high reliability (Cronbach’s α = 0.86, test–retest > 0.8) and moderate predictive validity, with greater sensitivity than specificity). SSQ (adaptations confirm high reliability, valid symptom domains, and good sensitivity, but specificity remains less established) . Current tools reliably identify at-risk individuals and measure severity but may overestimate susceptibility, highlighting the need for standardized diagnostic criteria and physiological markers to improve specificity and adapt to emerging technologies. Keywords: Motion sickness, nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, sweating, pallor