Virtual reality exergame for supplementing multimodal pain therapy in older adults with chronic back pain: a randomized controlled pilot study

Abstract

Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) with head-mounted displays (HMD) can be a promising tool for increasing adherence to exercise in older adults. However, there is little known about the effectiveness of an interactive multimodal therapy in VR for older chronic back pain (CBP) patients. The aim of the exploratory randomized controlled trial was to examine the preliminary effectiveness of a VR multimodal therapy for older adults with CBP in a laboratory setting over a period of four weeks. The intervention group (IG; n = 11) received a multimodal pain therapy in VR (movement therapy and psychoeducation) and the control group (CG; n = 11) received a conventional multimodal pain therapy (chair-based group exercises and psychoeducation in a group setting). Although the VR therapy (IG) did not reach the pain intensity reduction of the CG (IG: MD = 0.64, p = .535; CG: MD = 1.64, p = .07), both groups showed a reduction in pain intensity on the Numeric Rating Scale. The functional capacity in the IG improved from Visit 1, $$\overline{x }$$ x ¯ = 73.11% to Visit 2, $$\overline{x }$$ x ¯ = 81.82% (MD = 8.71%; p = .026). In the changes of fear avoidance beliefs and general physical and mental health, no significance was achieved in either group. Although the IG did not reach a significant pain intensity reduction compared to the CG, the results of the present study showed that a pain intensity reduction can be achieved with the current VR application.

Effects of Exergaming on Musculoskeletal Pain in Older Adults: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

“…Figures 2 and 3 summarized the risk of bias assessment for the 7 studies that were included. One study (14%) was classified as “low risk” [ 44 ], 2 studies (29%) as “some concerns” [ 31 , 32 ], and 4 studies (57%) as “high risk” [ 21 , 22 , 45 , 46 ]. All studies were judged “low risk” for the domains “Deviations from intended interventions,” “Missing outcome data,” and “Selection of the reported result.” Four studies (57%) were assessed as “high risk” for the domain “Randomization procedure” due to no report allocation concealment approaches, while 1 research (14%) was evaluated as “some concerns” related to baseline imbalance.…”

A social VR-based collaborative exergame for rehabilitation: codesign, development and user study

“…Consequentially, interest in VR-based physical training for the elderly has increased (Tieri et al 2018;Campo-Prieto et al 2021). Most of these VR-applications have been designed as single-player games (Bruun-Pedersen et al 2016;Stamm et al 2022;Levac et al 2019). We therefore lack knowledge about using social VR-based exergames for rehabilitation.…”

“…Full-body movements in physical space correspond with movements in virtual space, and vice versa. Most of these VR applications have been designed as single-player games, either for acquiring motor skills (Levac et al 2019) or for repetitive exercise (Bruun-Pedersen et al 2016;Stamm et al 2022). A VR-system for strength training of young people, based on the Oculus Rift head-mounted display and the Kinect V2-sensor, has been demonstrated in previous research (Tanaka and Hirakawa 2016).…”

What Is New in Classification, Diagnosis and Management of Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: A Narrative Review

“…Although VR therapy did not achieve the reduction in pain intensity achieved by traditional multimodal pain therapy, the results of this study suggest that current VR therapy can achieve the reduction in pain intensity. In general, it would be considered as an adjunctive therapy for multimodal pain management, but cannot be used as a substitute in its current prototype (53).…”