A Serious Game for Performing Task-Oriented Cervical Exercises Among Older Adult Patients With Chronic Neck Pain: Development, Suitability, and Crossover Pilot Study
Background: There is sparse research on the effectiveness of therapeutic exercise for the treatment of neck pain in older adultpopulations. Moreover, there is a lack of research on the use of serious games or virtual reality for the treatment of neck pain inthis population.Objective: The primary aim...
| Autores: | , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2022 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha |
| Repositorio: | RUIdeRA. Repositorio Institucional de la UCLM |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ruidera.uclm.es:10578/45364 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://games.jmir.org/2022/1/e31404/ https://hdl.handle.net/10578/45364 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Aged Exercise therapy Neck pain Physical therapy modalities Technology Video games Virtual reality |
| Sumario: | Background: There is sparse research on the effectiveness of therapeutic exercise for the treatment of neck pain in older adultpopulations. Moreover, there is a lack of research on the use of serious games or virtual reality for the treatment of neck pain inthis population.Objective: The primary aim of this study was to develop and assess the suitability of a serious game for performing task-orientedcervical exercises in patients with neck pain.Methods: A serious game was designed based on the key features identified by previous studies that designed serious videogames for physical and cognitive rehabilitation or exercise. The game in this study was designed to provide an interactive scenario,with the main functionality of the software solution to control a virtual airplane to reach targets using head motions. At the endof the exercise, the application stores the targets reached and missed and the airplane’s trajectory. A crossover pilot study wascarried out for preliminary evaluation of the suitability of the technology in the older adult population. Men and women over 65years of age with chronic neck pain were included. Subjects were randomly assigned to two study arms; each arm consisted ofa sequence of two 4-week treatments with an intermediate washout period of 4 weeks. The total study duration was 16 weeksdue to a final follow-up measure 4 weeks after the end of all treatments. Treatment A consisted of the use of the serious gamedeveloped in this study, and treatment B consisted of conventional exercises. Subjects allocated to the A-B study arm receivedtreatment A first, followed by treatment B, and vice versa in the B-A arm. The following variables were assessed: SuitabilityEvaluation Questionnaire (SEQ) scores, Visual Analog Scale scores, and the number of targets reached in the serious game.Results: A total of 18 subjects were assessed for eligibility. A total of 13 subjects, aged between 71 and 92 years (mean 81.85,SD 6.82), were finally included and completed the study protocol. The global mean SEQ score was 50.38 (SD 5.35) out of 65points, showing good suitability of the serious game. Most patients considered the experience very enjoyable and “real” in termsof the virtual environment and found the information provided to be clear. Also, they believed that the game could be very helpfulfor their rehabilitation. None of the patients felt any neck pain or discomfort when playing the game, and only 2 patients out of13 (15%) reported some degree of dizziness, eye discomfort, or disorientation, which did not limit their capacity to finish thesession.Conclusions: The serious game developed in this study showed good suitability for use in adults over 70 years of age withchronic neck pain. The game was a safe method for performing task-oriented cervical exercises, and patients reported very highlevels of satisfaction and acceptance after the use of this technology. |
|---|