Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padua, Italy.
Digital Health Research Unit, Centre for Health and Wellbeing, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2023 Nov 22;13(1):20516. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-47876-1.
Being immersed in a natural context has a beneficial and pervasive impact on well-being. Virtual Reality (VR) is a technology that can help expose people to naturalistic scenarios virtually, overcoming obstacles that prevent them from visiting real natural environments. VR could also increase engagement and relaxation in older adults with and without cognitive impairment. The main aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of a customized naturalistic VR scenario by assessing motion-sickness effects, engagement, pleasantness, and emotions felt. Twenty-three individuals with a diagnosis of cognitive impairment living in a long-term care home participated in our study. At the end of the entire VR experimental procedure with older adults, five health staff operators took part in a dedicated assessment phase focused on evaluating the VR procedure's usability from their individual perspectives. The tools administered were based on self-reported and observational tools used to obtain information from users and health care staff professionals. Feasibility and acceptance proved to be satisfactory, considering that the VR experience was well-tolerated and no adverse side effects were reported. One of the major advantages emerged was the opportunity to deploy customized environments that users are not able to experience in a real context.Trial Registration: National Institute of Health (NIH) U.S. National Library of Medicine, ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05863065 (17/05/2023).
沉浸在自然环境中对幸福感有有益且普遍的影响。虚拟现实 (VR) 是一种可以帮助人们在虚拟环境中体验自然场景的技术，可以克服人们访问真实自然环境的障碍。VR 还可以增加认知障碍和非认知障碍老年人的参与度和放松感。本研究的主要目的是通过评估运动病效应、参与度、愉悦度和感受的情绪，来研究定制自然 VR 场景的可行性。23 名被诊断患有认知障碍的人居住在长期护理院参加了我们的研究。在整个针对老年人的 VR 实验程序结束时，五名健康工作人员参加了专门的评估阶段，从他们个人的角度评估 VR 程序的可用性。管理的工具基于自我报告和观察工具，用于从用户和医疗保健专业人员那里获取信息。考虑到 VR 体验耐受性良好，没有报告任何不良反应，因此证明了可行性和可接受性。出现的一个主要优势是有机会部署用户在真实环境中无法体验的定制环境。试验注册：美国国立卫生研究院 (NIH)，美国国立医学图书馆，ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05863065（2023 年 5 月 17 日）。
