JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Immersive virtual reality (VR) technology has been recently adopted in health prevention psychology research, but no review has synthesized the results, limitations, and challenges of this growing field yet, limiting the systematic advancement in the research and deployment of VR for health promotion. .

Objective:

Our objective was to map the existing literature to understand the current state of research on VR in health promotion

Methods:

We conducted a scoping review following PRISMA-ScR guidelines. We searched for empirical articles across three databases (PubMed, EBSCO, and PsychInfo) including keywords combining VR with health prevention psychology from 2010 to present.

Results:

Of 3972 results, 46 studies were eligible, clustered into three main research goals: (1) VR as a tool to deliver an intervention, either (1a) pilot testing or testing the feasibility of using VR materials or procedure or (1b) test relative efficacy of VR-based interventions; (2) VR as a tool to address fundamental research questions, or (3) use VR as an assessment tool. Although VR presents several advantages in the field (e.g., ecological validity, skill practice), evaluation studies suffer from methodological limitations mostly related to sample size, follow-up duration, and experimental control.

Conclusions:

VR is a promising tool for both fundamental and applied research (i.e., intervention delivery) in health prevention psychology. The field is still at its very beginning, hence needing further expansion and replication of the current evidence to support its beneficial effects.