Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Serious Games
Date Submitted: Sep 1, 2023
Date Accepted: Mar 31, 2024
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
VR applications for the implementation of domestic respiratory rehabilitation programs for Long/Post COVID patients: A Scoping Review
ABSTRACT
Background:
Due to a high number of patients affected by Long or Post COVID, an essential step to address the long-term effects lies in the development and implementation of flexible and accessible rehabilitation programs.
Objective:
Virtual reality technologies (VR) offer the potential to support traditional therapies with individualized at home programs. This study aims to provide an overview of existing scientific evidence on the development and implementation of VR-assisted respiratory rehabilitation programs for Long/Post COVID patients and to synthesize the results.
Methods:
A scoping review was conducted: Six databases (PubMed, Cinahl, Cochrane, ScienceDirect, Web of Science Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), PEDro) were searched using an exploratory search strategy. Seven publications were included into the qualitative analysis.
Results:
Included studies demonstrate that VR-supported respiratory rehabilitation programs show first positive outcomes in terms of physical as well as psychological parameters. Particularly noteworthy are the increased motivation and compliance of patients. However, adverse effects and a lack of usability are barriers to the implementation of this innovative approach.
Conclusions:
Overall, VR is a promising technology for the implementation of individualized and flexible respiratory rehabilitation programs for Long/Post COVID patients. However, corresponding approaches are still under development and need to be more closely adapted to the needs of the users.
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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.