JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Purpose: This meta-analysis aimed to analyse the effects of virtual reality (VR) based pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) on medical outcomes in individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), including lung function, exercise capacity, dyspnoea, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Materials and methods: International and Chinese databases were searched up to September 2023 for literature and analysed using RevMan 5.4 and Stata 16.

Results:

For lung function, VR-based PR had no significant difference on the percentage of predicted forced expiratory volume in 1s (FEV1 (%)) (p = 0.74) and the forced expiratory volume in the 1s (p = 0.05) but was significant for FEV1/forced vital capacity (p = 0.02) compared with controls. For exercise capacity, compared with controls, VR-based PR significantly increased the 6-min walk distance (p = 0.002). For dyspnoea, VR-based PR had no significant difference on the Borg rating (p = 0.51) and the Modified Medical Research Council rating (p = 0.08) compared with controls. For HRQoL, compared with controls, VR-based PR had no significant difference on the St George's Respiratory Questionnaire results (p = 0.88), but a significant difference on the COPD Assessment Test (p < 0.001).

Conclusions:

VR technology-complemented PR increased patient adherence and enjoyment, suggesting that VR-based PR is more efficient in improving exercise capacity in patients with COPD than conventional PR, and is non-inferior in improving dyspnoea compared to traditional PR. Both significant and nonsignificant improvements in lung function and HRQoL were found.