Effects of Immersive Virtual Reality on Balance, Mobility, and Fatigue in Patients With Multiple Sclerosis

Gazi University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Multiple Sclerosis

Treatments: Other: Dynamic Balance Training; Other: Virtual reality group

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03501342

228

Details and patient eligibility

About

Gait disorder, imbalance, and fatigue are the most frequently reported complaints in Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a chronic neurodegenerative disease. The first symptoms in patients with MS are emerging in the age range 20-50 and these patients need long-term rehabilitation. The virtual reality applications developed for these problems which affect the quality of life negatively and cause disability in the following periods may be a good alternative for conventional rehabilitation applications. In this long-term where motivation is important, virtual reality applications in different environments provide patients with the opportunity to do many different tasks amused. In recent years, the vividness has been increased by the 3D virtual reality headsets.

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of immersive virtual reality on the balance, mobility, and fatigue in patients with MS.

Full description

The study was designed as a prospective, randomized controlled study. The patients will be randomly assigned to three groups, the "immersive virtual reality (IVR)" group, the "dynamic balance training (DBT)" group and the control group. The trainings will be twice a week for 8 weeks. In the IVR group, firstly 30 minutes of Pilates training, 10 minutes of rest and then 20 minutes of virtual reality will be applied. In the DBT group, 20 minutes of dynamic balance exercises will be applied after Pilates training. In dynamic balance training, exercises will consist of similar movements required by virtual reality games. The control group will be taught relaxation exercises and will be asked to perform the exercises 2 times for 8 weeks at home.

Statistical analyses will be performed using the SPSS software version 15 (SPSS Inc. Chicago, IL, USA). The pre-training and post-training measurements of groups will be compared with the Wilcoxon Test. The significance level was set at p< 0.05.

Enrollment: 39 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Participants who are ambulatory and volunteer to participate to the study, in a stable phase of the disease, without relapses in the last 1 month, with an EDSS between 0-5,5.

Exclusion criteria

• Participants who have orthopedic, vision, hearing, or perception problems
• Patients who have any cardiovascular or pulmonary disease in which exercise is contraindicated

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

---

39 participants in 3 patient groups

Virtual reality group

Experimental group

Description:

In virtual reality group, 30 minutes of Pilates training, 10 minutes of rest and then 20 minutes of virtual reality will be applied.

Treatment:

Other: Virtual reality group

Dynamic Balance Training

Active Comparator group

Description:

In the "Dynamic Balance Training" group, 20 minutes of dynamic balance exercises will be applied after Pilates training.

Treatment:

Other: Dynamic Balance Training

Control group

No Intervention group

Description:

The control group will be taught relaxation exercises and will be asked to perform the exercises at home.