A Pilot Study of Virtual Reality (VR) Tai Chi Program on Mental Health among Older Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Objectives: Tai Chi, an ancient Chinese martial art, has been credited for improving the physical and mental health of community-dwelling older adults. Virtual reality (VR) has developed as a therapeutic technique for improving health and well-being in older adults. Previous research on exercise-based VR interventions in older adults has focused primarily on the physical and cognitive health effects. The extent to which a program integrating the ancient practice of Tai Chi with virtual reality might benefit older individuals' physical and mental health is an unknown entity. In this pilot study, we examined potential advantages of the virtual Tai Chi program in terms of health outcomes, as well as to gather qualitative data on the barriers to VR program participation. Methods: We conducted semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 5 participants who had participated at least 5 years in traditional Tai Chi. Results: Three key salient themes emerged as beneficial results of VR experiences: (1) mindfulness/ meditation, (2) enjoyment, and (3) physical exercise. Participants also reported 3 main challenges: (1) some difficulties with controllers and functions, (2) cybersickness/pain, and (3) absence of group synergy. Conclusions:These challenges suggest further avenues of investigation for researchers in refining this approach.

Forest Therapy as a Nature-Based Intervention: An Option for Neurological Rehabilitation?

“…In relation to our questions, however, patients with dementia were not included in the study. Kim et al [23] used a nature-based virtual reality program on emotional health and quality of life in patients with dementia. They found an increase in pleasure and alertness scores, a decrease in anxiety, sadness, and anger scores and an increase in quality of life score.…”

“…These difficulties could not be resolved in either case. The evaluation of this review therefore also included work that not only included forest therapy in the strict sense but also had certain elements of forest therapy, such as being in the green [16][17][18], inhaling tree odours [19], adapted gardening and horse riding [21], combination with Qigong and walking [22] or even virtual forest living [23]. At this point, it is therefore extremely important that in the future the professional societies define and operationalize forest therapy precisely in order to be able to conduct more meaningful studies in the future, ideally in multicenter format, in order to achieve statistically sufficiently powered case numbers.…”

“…In two reviews, pleasure and enjoyment from viewing nature and being and doing in nature are reported in elderly people, and use of garden may lead to lesser agitation in dementia patients [17,18]. Few nature-based interventions in dementia patients showed certain benefits in particular details, but no actual forest therapy was conducted [19,21,23].…”

The application of virtual reality meditation and mind–body exercises among older adults

“…In terms of health promotion, VR meditation has been shown to improve mental health ( Trueba et al, 2023a , b ; Cinalioglu et al, 2023b ), pain ( Sarkar et al, 2022 ), and quality of life ( Hendrixson, 2020 ) in older adults. VR mind–body exercises contribute to enhancing the mental health ( Hsieh et al, 2019 ; Kim et al, 2022 ) and physical function ( Chen et al, 2020 ) of older adults. Furthermore, VR-based mindfulness interventions not only improved the quality of meditation and mind–body exercises but also enhanced their accessibility ( Kim et al, 2013 ; Cinalioglu et al, 2023a ).…”

“…However, no significant outcomes were observed in long-term memory, short-term memory, attention, mental manipulation, orientation, language, drawing, and animal name fluency. Another study investigated the effects of VR Tai Chi on the mental health of older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic ( Kim et al, 2022 ). Their research revealed that older adults experienced improvements in mindfulness and enjoyment after the VR intervention.…”