This meta-analysis conducted by Kim, Pang and Kim analyzed studies in English and Korean focused on VR intervention relating to patients with MCI (mild cognitive impairment), dementia, and Alzheimer’s Disease and followed specific experimental design criteria as well as excluding studies focused on assessment or diagnosis and those that did not report quantitative outcomes (Kim et. al, 2019). Research on VR interventions for those with dementia is a newly emerging topic of study, and Kim et. al sought to synthesize VR's effects to discover intervention effectiveness and encourage more research in this area leading to the development of safe use guidelines for intervention (Kim et. al, 2019).
The meta-analysis was narrowed to 11 studies from a potential 768 articles and through data extraction and analysis researchers discovered “small-to-medium positive effects for VR interventions on key outcome variables such as physical fitness, cognition, and emotion” (Kim et. al, 2019). The majority of studies (82.8% and 72.7%, respectively) were conducted using semi-immersive VR and in the community and found that positive effects were greater with patients with MCI compared to those with dementia or a combination of both (Kim et al, 2019). Semi-immersive VR was found to be more effective than fully immersive VR, perhaps as a result of the complexity and difficulty in using fully immersive VR systems (Kim et al, 2019).
The review indicates the limitations of VR studies on dementia and MCI as intervention and calls for the development of practical guidelines for evidence-based interventions and safe implementation of these interventions for mature adults with cognitive, visual, and sensory impairments (Kim et al, 2019). Kim et. al cite the increasing cost-effectiveness of patient-centered treatments like VR, and my own research on immersive experience technologies has uncovered the benefits of VR for treating patients and in healthcare, and we will see more widespread use in the years to come (2019).
References
Kim, O., Pang, Y., & Kim, J. H. (2019). The effectiveness of virtual reality on people with mild cognitive impairment or dementia: A meta-analysis. BMC psychiatry, 19, 219. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-019-2180-x
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