Validating the Threat of a Virtual Reality Clinical Environment: A Mixed Methods Study
There is an increasing need for virtual reality (VR) health applications. In the field of pain, VR has been used mainly as a distraction, with minimal use of VR to answer basic clinical questions. Pain is multifactorial and inherently threatening. Our lab recently designed two VR clinical environmen...
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MDPI AG
2024-11-01
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| Series: | Applied Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/14/21/10009 |
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| author | David O’Neill Morgan Titmus Wesley Lamont Wan Hui Teh Enoch Perimal Flavia Di Pietro |
| author_facet | David O’Neill Morgan Titmus Wesley Lamont Wan Hui Teh Enoch Perimal Flavia Di Pietro |
| author_sort | David O’Neill |
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| description | There is an increasing need for virtual reality (VR) health applications. In the field of pain, VR has been used mainly as a distraction, with minimal use of VR to answer basic clinical questions. Pain is multifactorial and inherently threatening. Our lab recently designed two VR clinical environments with varying threat values; the present study sought to validate these environments. Subjects were randomly allocated into either the threatening or non-threatening VR consultation room and both subjective (threat questionnaire) and physiological (salivary cortisol) measurements were taken. As hypothesised, subjects in the threat condition recorded a higher threat score (<i>p</i> < 0.001; effect size = 0.76). There was a cortisol change across time in the threat condition (χ<sup>2</sup>(2) = 13.83, <i>p</i> < 0.001), but there were unexpected decreases at both 20 (<i>p</i> = 0.001) and 26 min (<i>p</i> = 0.03) following VR. While the physiological findings need further clarification, this study provides some validation of the threat value of our VR clinical tools. As such, these VR environments can potentially be used in pain experiments to help better our understanding of basic pain mechanisms. It is only with such understanding that we might offer new avenues for pain management. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-4d5e883a8a2f4f0ebe3b5717ae144b44 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2076-3417 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Applied Sciences |
| spelling | doaj-art-4d5e883a8a2f4f0ebe3b5717ae144b442025-08-20T02:14:15ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172024-11-0114211000910.3390/app142110009Validating the Threat of a Virtual Reality Clinical Environment: A Mixed Methods StudyDavid O’Neill0Morgan Titmus1Wesley Lamont2Wan Hui Teh3Enoch Perimal4Flavia Di Pietro5Curtin Medical School, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6102, AustraliaCurtin Medical School, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6102, AustraliaSchool of Design and the Built Environment, Faculty of Humanities, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6102, AustraliaHub for Immersive Visualisation and eResearch (HIVE), Curtin University, Perth, WA 6102, AustraliaCurtin Medical School, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6102, AustraliaCurtin Medical School, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6102, AustraliaThere is an increasing need for virtual reality (VR) health applications. In the field of pain, VR has been used mainly as a distraction, with minimal use of VR to answer basic clinical questions. Pain is multifactorial and inherently threatening. Our lab recently designed two VR clinical environments with varying threat values; the present study sought to validate these environments. Subjects were randomly allocated into either the threatening or non-threatening VR consultation room and both subjective (threat questionnaire) and physiological (salivary cortisol) measurements were taken. As hypothesised, subjects in the threat condition recorded a higher threat score (<i>p</i> < 0.001; effect size = 0.76). There was a cortisol change across time in the threat condition (χ<sup>2</sup>(2) = 13.83, <i>p</i> < 0.001), but there were unexpected decreases at both 20 (<i>p</i> = 0.001) and 26 min (<i>p</i> = 0.03) following VR. While the physiological findings need further clarification, this study provides some validation of the threat value of our VR clinical tools. As such, these VR environments can potentially be used in pain experiments to help better our understanding of basic pain mechanisms. It is only with such understanding that we might offer new avenues for pain management.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/14/21/10009virtual realitythreatpainclinical environmentcortisolmixed methods |
| spellingShingle | David O’Neill Morgan Titmus Wesley Lamont Wan Hui Teh Enoch Perimal Flavia Di Pietro Validating the Threat of a Virtual Reality Clinical Environment: A Mixed Methods Study Applied Sciences virtual reality threat pain clinical environment cortisol mixed methods |
| title | Validating the Threat of a Virtual Reality Clinical Environment: A Mixed Methods Study |
| title_full | Validating the Threat of a Virtual Reality Clinical Environment: A Mixed Methods Study |
| title_fullStr | Validating the Threat of a Virtual Reality Clinical Environment: A Mixed Methods Study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Validating the Threat of a Virtual Reality Clinical Environment: A Mixed Methods Study |
| title_short | Validating the Threat of a Virtual Reality Clinical Environment: A Mixed Methods Study |
| title_sort | validating the threat of a virtual reality clinical environment a mixed methods study |
| topic | virtual reality threat pain clinical environment cortisol mixed methods |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/14/21/10009 |
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