Introduction to Virtual Reality in Fall Prevention
Annually, one in 4 senior residents seek emergency care from a fall-related injury. Traditionally, conventional physical therapy rehabilitation approaches have been used to assist prevent falls, which are sometimes the results of poor balance. However, many within the physical therapy field now view immersive virtual reality (VR) technology as an intriguing option. While laboratory-based experiments provide promising findings, thus far this technology has yet to be translated into clinical settings.
The Vision for Virtual Reality in Fall Prevention
Tiphanie Raffegeau of George Mason University’s School of Kinesiology within the College of Education and Human Development, and Christopher Rhea, Old Dominion University’s associate dean for Research and Innovation in Ellmer College of Health Sciences, envisioned a future where clinicians could use reasonably priced VR technology to outperform traditional diagnostics, therapeutics, and pharmaceutical approaches in fall prevention. They saw a chance to develop effective uses of VR technology to detect cognitive-motor function in older adults and discover fall-risk aspects for this population. They were awarded a 4-VA grant for the project.
The Research Team
Raffegeau’s prior research focused on inducing anxiety during walking to review the fear of falling with an elevated height VR paradigm, while Rhea has primarily targeting examining how people adapt their steps to avoid obstacles in virtual environments. Through a 4-VA partnership, they aimed to extend accessibility to rehabilitative VR technology for interventions focused on reducing older adult fall-risk, while developing a framework for future scalable and fundable research. Raffegeau hired three student programmers, Trevor Hsu, Chara Canfield, and Micah D Williams, from George Mason’s Virginia Serious Game Institute (VSGI) to assist. The student programmers were supervised by VSGI research faculty member Jacob Enfield. Two George Mason University graduate students are also working on the project: Kelly Poretti and Mackenzie Barrowman.
Findings and Results
After a 12 months of research, Raffegeau noted, "Our testing proved fruitful, and we identified quite a few essential results." First, they found that experiencing fall-related anxiety in immersive VR can further impair a senior’s walking performance. Interestingly, additionally they found that the anxiety response tapers over time, suggesting that experiencing virtual high-elevation settings may reduce fall-related anxiety overall. They also saw that anxiety-provoking VR settings could promote stability-related adaptations during non-VR walking in impaired populations. This suggested that the VR experience could function a clinical intervention to enhance walking.
Sharing the Findings
They shared their findings on the Gait and Clinical Movement Analysis Society’s annual meeting, the American Society of Biomechanics annual meeting, and the College of Education and Human Development’s Research Symposium. Poretti, who’s working on a PhD in Education, was awarded the Switzer Research Fellowship for Doctoral Dissertation Research by the Administration for Community Living for her dissertation "Using Virtual Reality to Reduce Mobility-Related Anxiety in Lower-Limb Prosthetic Users," which uses preliminary data from the VR project.
Future Directions
"This 4-VA funding provided crucial funds to support my work as an early investigator, and it has made my future grant applications stronger as evidence of institutional support for my profession trajectory," Raffegeau said. Raffegeau and Rhea will proceed to pursue this line of research. They recently submitted a proposal to the National Institutes on Aging on "Investigating Biobehavioral Responses to Mobility-Specific Anxiety Across the Menopause Transition and the Effects on Mobility and Fall-Risk," specializing in the effect of VR-induced fall-related anxiety on walking in pre- and post-menopausal older women.
Conclusion
The use of virtual reality technology in fall prevention is a promising area of research that has shown positive leads to laboratory settings. With further funding and support, this technology could possibly be translated into clinical settings, providing a brand new tool for clinicians to assist prevent falls in older adults. The research team’s findings suggest that VR-induced fall-related anxiety can impair walking performance, but in addition that the anxiety response can taper over time, suggesting a possible therapeutic profit. As the research continues to evolve, it is probably going that we are going to see the event of latest and progressive uses of VR technology in fall prevention, ultimately resulting in improved outcomes for older adults.
