Evaluation of Virtual Reality Technology for Reducing the Risk of Falls among Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia

Evaluation of Virtual Reality Technology for Reducing the Risk of Falls among Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia

Innovative Virtual Reality (VR) technology shows the proven effectiveness of VR intervention in aged care and rehabilitation services. However, there is yet little evidence to support the usability and acceptance of using new VR technology application in community aged care service. This doctoral study reports on research that aims to address that gap by evaluating the usefulness and acceptance of using an innovative VR Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) application among Chinese older adults living with mild cognitive impairment and dementia from Hong Kong during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research is structured around three primary objectives: a pilot randomized control trial comparing full-immersive VR CAVE training with group-based exercise, a single-arm exploratory study gauging participant perceptions of the VR CAVE program, and an outcome study evaluating the adoption of VR CAVE technology for falls prevention. Due to challenges posed by the pandemic, a quasi-experimental quantitative approach was employed.
Regarding the primary outcome of the study, the falls incident in the intervention group (n=2) reported a lesser rate of fall than the control group (n=5) after the study. The hospital admission of participants (n=3) reported in the control group only. There were significant differences in cognition (HK-MoCA, p=.008), executive function (TMT-A, p=.38, TMT-B, p=.006), balance level (BBS, p=.032), and walk speed (6MWT, p=.001) between the two groups across time. However, there had inconsistent results found in executive functions and the fall efficacy between groups. Therefore, the study results indicated that the VR group has been greatly reduced the falls incident and showed improvement in cognitive motor health performances. Participants expressed a high level of acceptance toward VR technology for fall prevention, highlighting the potential of full-immersive VR training as an innovative and meaningful strategy for preventing falls in older adults with mild cognitive impairment. The significant implication of the doctoral study reaffirms that investment in full immersive VR technology application is evidently supported and promising for adoption in aged care and rehabilitation services.

File reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher/author/creator.