Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Oct 9, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Oct 9, 2018 - Oct 17, 2018
Date Accepted: Dec 9, 2018
Date Submitted to PubMed: Jan 26, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
The Virtual Reality Food Court: An Innovative Research Tool Designed to Study Meal Choices in Youth
ABSTRACT
Background:
Regular consumption of take-out and fast foods with sugary drinks is associated with poor quality diets and higher prevalence of obesity. Among the settings where such food is consumed is the food court typically found in shopping malls prominent in many countries.
Objective:
The objective of this research was to develop a virtual reality food court (VRFC) that could be used to test food environmental interventions, such as taxation, and ultimately to facilitate the selection of healthier food choices.
Methods:
Fourteen food courts in Sydney, Australia were selected to include those in the city centre and in suburbs of high and low socioeconomic status. Researchers visited the courts to collect information on number and type of food outlets, all menu items for sale, cost of foods and beverages and sales promotions. This information was used to assemble 14 food outlets typically found in food courts and representative menus were compiled. The Unity® gaming platform was used to design a VRFC that could be used with HTC Vive® goggles. Participants navigated the VRFC using the head-mounted display, keyboard and mouse and selected a lunch meal, including food and beverage. A validated questionnaire on presence within the VRFC and system usability was completed at the end of the session. The constructs for presence included sense of control, sensory fidelity, realism, distraction, and involvement. Questions were rated on a scale from 1 (worst) through 7 (best) for each of 28 questions giving a maximum total score of 196. The systems usability scale (SUS) that gives a final score out of 100 was also assessed.
Results:
One hundred and sixty-two participants (mean age of 22.5 years (SD 3)) completed the survey. The mean score for total presence was 144 ± (SEM) 1.4 consisting of control (62 ± 0.8), realism (18 ± 0.2), involvement (10 ± 0.2), sensory fidelity (35 ± 0.4) and distraction (24 ± 0.3). The mean SUS was 69 ± (SEM)1.1.
Conclusions:
Virtual reality shows promise as a tool to study food choice for test interventions to inform practice and policy. Clinical Trial: Not applicable
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.