Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies
Date Submitted: Nov 7, 2024
Date Accepted: Feb 27, 2025
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited.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.
Effects of Virtual Reality Exercise Program on Cardiorespiratory Performance in Community-Dwelling Adults with Heart Surgery: A Randomized Controlled Trial
ABSTRACT
Background:
Patients undergoing heart surgery demonstrate impaired cardiorespiratory performance. Phase II cardiac rehabilitation in people with open heart surgery aims to reduce the adverse physical effects of cardiovascular diseases. Virtual reality exercise is now used in cardiac rehabilitation
Objective:
This study aimed to explore the effects of virtual reality exercise on functional capacity, pulmonary function, and respiratory muscle strength in patients who underwent open-heart surgery and were in phase II cardiac rehabilitation.
Methods:
Forty-nine patients who underwent elective open heart surgery and were in phase II cardiac rehabilitation were randomized into a virtual reality group (N = 24) and a control group (N = 25). The virtual reality group completed 8 weeks of a home-based virtual reality exercise program, including chest trunk mobilization and aerobic circuit training for 30 minutes, whereas the control group completed standard care. Intention-to-treat analysis was conducted, and two-way mixed ANOVA was performed to compare between and within the groups.
Results:
After completing the 8-week program, the virtual reality group showed a significant improvement in functional capacity compared with the control group (66.29 ±25.84, p = .014). Inspiratory muscle strength was increased in both the virtual reality group and control group compared to baseline (9.46 ±2.85, and 9.64 ±2.78, respectively). In addition, after the 8-week intervention, significant improvements in expiratory muscle strength and forced expiratory volume in 1 second as a percentage of predicted were found in the virtual reality group compared with the baseline session.
Conclusions:
TCTR20230602001A home-based virtual reality exercise program significantly improved functional capacity, but not respiratory muscle or pulmonary function, compared with the control. Clinical Trial: TCTR20230602001
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