Enabling Immersive Exercise Activities for Older Adults: A Comparison of Virtual Reality Exergames and Traditional Video Exercises

Lucie Kruse,Sukran Karaosmanoglu,Frank Steinicke,Sebastian Rings,Benedikt Ellinger

doi:10.3390/soc11040134

Lucie Kruse, Sukran Karaosmanoglu + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/soc11040134

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Abstract

Participating in cognitive and physical activities can help older adults to live a healthy and independent life. However, with the ongoing pandemic, face-to-face training options became unavailable or limited, yielding a need for alternatives. In this paper, we conducted a user study with older adults (N = 25) to compare a traditional, recorded 2D gymnastics video with an immersive virtual reality (VR) exergame. We evaluated the movement and heart rate of the participants, as well as their enjoyment, attention to the task, and perceived workload. In the VR condition, we additionally assessed their feeling of cybersickness. Finally, qualitative feedback about their preferences was collected. The results indicate that our immersive VR exergame can be a suitable alternative, but not a replacement for traditional 2D video-based exercise activities. Furthermore, the cognitive aspect of exergames can lead to the feeling of physical workload, even if easy movements are performed. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results for future VR exergames and point out advantages and disadvantages of the systems.

Highlights

In particular older adults, it is important to remain fit as long as possible in order to keep autonomy and to be able to live a healthy and independent life
We will report the results of the study. We will report both statistical results from frequentist statistics (α = 0.05) and from the Bayesian approach
Our goal was to find out if a virtual reality (VR) exergame can be an alternative for traditional exercise videos

Summary

Introduction

In particular older adults, it is important to remain fit as long as possible in order to keep autonomy and to be able to live a healthy and independent life. The combination of physical and cognitive exercises can reduce neurological degeneration and prevent diseases such as dementia [4,5,6]. During the COVID-19 pandemic, physical training groups, sport teams, access to gyms, and individual physiotherapist sessions were limited, and, physical activities of older adults have decreased [7]. The unavailability of group-based physical activity, as well as several lock-downs, led to the need for alternatives such as home-based training. A term used to combine the words “exercise” and “games” [10], are one possibility for home workouts. Younger people are already familiar with online video classes or virtual reality (VR) exergames for training, and 22% of people have used more online fitness videos during the pandemic than compared to before [11]

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