Effects of virtual reality natural experiences on factory workers’ psychological and physiological stress

Abstract

IntroductionManufacturing facilities and factories are stressful work environments. Interventions to improve factory workers’ stress is necessary to promote occupational health. This study aimed to examine the effects of virtual reality natural experiences on furniture factory employees’ psychological and physiological stress.MethodsA single-blinded, non-randomised quasi-experimental study was conducted between July and December 2021. Factory workers were recruited from two factories, and all participants at a given factory were assigned to either an experimental group or a comparison group. The intervention was conducted in a clean conference room once a week for 12 weeks during the worker’s break time. The experimental group received virtual reality natural experiences consisting of 30-minute nature-based 360° videos which were played in a headset. The generalised estimating equations were performed for the statistical analyses.ResultsIn total, 35 participants completed the intervention. As to psychological stress, the experimental group showed improvements in distress, depression, and anxiety, and a positive affect after the intervention compared to the comparison group. As to physiological stress, the experimental group showed improvements in indicators of heart rate variability compared to the comparison group, including standard deviations of all normal-to-normal intervals, low-frequency power, and high-frequency power.DiscussionVirtual reality is an innovative platform to bring the natural environment into an indoor environment to create similar health effects.

Complementarity with Real Forests: A Conceptual Framework and Narrative Review of Multidimensional Effects in Virtual Forests

“…One study considered a sample of adolescents aged 14-19 years [56], one selected a sample of children [94], one included only males [50], and three selected pregnant women [59,95,96]. In terms of occupation, only one study included factory workers [97]. Subjects were also selected by mental health status, with one study selecting healthy adults with low natural connectedness (CN < 3.71) [82], one selecting older adults with cognitive or physical impairments [91], one selecting people who self-reported or were diagnosed by a doctor as suffering from stress or burnout syndrome [61], one selecting patients with generalized anxiety [52] (generalized anxiety disorder), and one selecting college students with mildto-moderate anxiety and depression (stated anxiety and depression scale scores ≥40 and ≤60) [98].…”

“…The causal role of natural exposure in improving shortterm impacts is well known; however, its influence on long-term physical and mental health is not entirely clear [49]. The longest of the included studies lasted 12 weeks (one exposure per week) [97], and the shortest lasted two days (three exposures per day) [96]. One study reported that participating in a VR forest experience for three consecutive days resulted in sustained psychological improvements in older adults [92].…”

“…Incorporated studies have reported extensively that virtual forests have positive impacts on physiological, affective, and cognitive effects. Common physiological measures include blood pressure (BP) [86,91,96], heart rate (HR) [93,100,103], heart rate variability (HRV) [97,100,114], electrocardiography (ECG) [97,100], skin conductivity levels (SCLs) [84,103], electrodermal activity (EDA) [86,109], electroencephalography (EEG) [52,58,87], salivary cortisol [103], and salivary amylase [51,78,83]. Most studies used wearable devices for measuring these physiological factors.…”

“…Most studies used wearable devices for measuring these physiological factors. Common outcome indicators of affective effects include positive or negative affect [97,98,101,103], perceived stress [52,56,58], perceived restorativeness [60,72,93], mood state [93], anxiety state [96,98], and others. Such studies mainly utilized measurement scales such as the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS), Profile of Mood States (POMS), and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI).…”

Virtual Reality to Promoting Sports Engagement and Some Technical skills in Junior Football Athletes: A 12-Week Randomized Controlled Trial

“…VR is a sophisticated technology which has become more popular and has been used in several fields such as health (Asadzadeh, Samad-Soltani, Salahzadeh, Rezaei-Hachesu, 2021;Lindner, 2021;Peláez-Vélez, Gacto-Sánchez & Martínez-Carrasco, 2023), employment (Ho, Wu & Yen, 20232023, education until sports (Hoyos, Yusti & Sandon, 2022;Zhang et al, 2022;Wiebe et al, 2022). VR presents a sports activity carried out in a virtual environment.…”