Social Virtual Reality For Inpatient Rehabilitation During The COVID-19 Pandemic

Physical activity decreases with age, and during inpatient rehabilitation and ospitalization, sedentary behavior is often observable. Inpatients may spend a significant proportion of their admission in bed or seated, which can decrease the speed of their recovery, reduce muscle strength and functional performance. During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare facilities worldwide has faced unprecedented circumstances when compelled to restrict activities, and isolate many vulnerable inpatients in single rooms rather than in multiple occupancies, and restrict their access to common areas, television rooms and exercise machinery. Consequently, many inpatients found themselves deprived of interpersonal relations due to restricted visitors or socializing with the other inpatients. Resulting frustrations are understandable, since relatedness is posited to be one of three basic human psychological needs (along with autonomy and competence). When these needs are not fulfilled, it can have negative consequences on both motivation and wellbeing. Virtual reality (VR)-based exertion games (exergames) have previously been applied to multiple areas of rehabilitation, due to its ability to combine physical activities with game-inspired design mechanics that instills both motivation and enjoyment for elderly patients. Research on social exergaming for elderly is increasing, yet still scarce, and original research oftentimes describe co-located social experiences, centered around competition. Since competitiveness tends to decrease with age, and can lead to higher levels of stress and aggression in some individuals, we hypothesize that vulnerable elderly individuals, exposed to isolated conditions, will likely benefit more from social collaborative experiences. Moreover, the need to investigate the impact of remote social interaction is highly pertinent for meeting unsatisfied social needs in elderly isolated inpatients related to the current pandemic and beyond.
To evaluate the effect of social collaboration, we performed a mixed-methods within-subjects study. Motivation, interpersonal interaction, VR-sickness was measured. Results indicate that the participants enjoyed the experience both in collaborative and single player mode.