Effects of Community-Based Virtual Reality on Daily Activities and Quality of Life

Abstract

Aims To examine the effects of immersive virtual reality (VR) on self-identified daily activities and quality of life (QOL) of older adults with and without cognitive impairments and identify their preferred VR apps. Methods One group, pretest-posttest study of a total of eight 30-minute VR sessions over five weeks at a senior center. Measures included the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure, the World Health Organization QOL-BREF, and a preference questionnaire. Results Improvements in activity performance (p = 0.047) and satisfaction (p = 0.016) for all participants (n = 16; mean age = 69.76, SD = 5.14; 14 females), no differences in QOL, with reported preferences of leisure-oriented apps. Upon subgroup analysis based on cognition, the group with cognitive impairments (n = 7) did not report increases in activity performance (p = 0.497) while the group without cognitive impairment (n = 9) reported performance increases (p = 0.018). Conclusions In a community-based setting, leisure-oriented immersive VR may improve daily activity perceptions for older adults, regardless of mild cognitive impairments. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02703181.2022.2033903 .