Effects of Virtual Reality Dementia Education on College Students' Knowledge and Attitudes

Asia University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Dementia Education

Treatments: Other: VR-360 Dementia Education; Other: CG VR Dementia Education

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT07366073

REC113-09

Details and patient eligibility

About

Dementia is a growing public health concern, and improving knowledge and attitudes toward dementia is important for reducing stigma and promoting supportive care. Virtual reality (VR) has been increasingly used as an educational tool because it can provide immersive and engaging learning experiences.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of different types of virtual reality-based dementia education on college students' knowledge of dementia and their attitudes toward people living with dementia. College students were randomly assigned to one of two educational approaches: a VR-360 experience based on real-life scenarios or a computer-generated VR (CG-VR) learning environment.

Participants completed questionnaires assessing dementia-related knowledge and attitudes before and after the educational intervention. By comparing changes between the two groups, this study aims to determine whether different VR formats lead to different learning outcomes. The findings of this study may help inform the design of future dementia education programs using immersive technologies.

Full description

This study adopted a two-group randomized pretest-posttest design to evaluate the effectiveness of different virtual reality-based dementia education approaches. Participants were recruited from a university in central Taiwan and were randomly assigned to either a VR-360 group or a computer-generated VR (CG-VR) group using computer-generated random codes.

Both interventions were designed to introduce key concepts related to dementia, including common warning signs, prevention strategies, and communication considerations when interacting with people living with dementia. The VR-360 intervention used immersive real-life video scenarios, whereas the CG-VR intervention used a virtual learning environment with interactive instructional content.

Dementia-related knowledge and attitudes were assessed using standardized questionnaires before and after the intervention. Changes in outcomes were compared between groups to evaluate the differential effects of the two VR formats. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Taichung Tzu Chi Hospital.

Enrollment: 129 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 20+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Individuals aged 20 years and older.
• College students who are able to participate in virtual reality-based teaching activities and complete questionnaire assessments.
• Willingness to participate and provide written informed consent.

Exclusion criteria

• Individuals with visual or auditory impairments that may interfere with virtual reality use.
• Individuals with abnormalities of the head or face that prevent wearing virtual reality equipment.
• Individuals who are unable to adapt to virtual reality devices (e.g., experiencing severe motion sickness).

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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129 participants in 2 patient groups

VR-360 Group

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in this arm received a virtual reality 360-degree (VR-360) dementia education intervention based on immersive real-life video scenarios designed to improve dementia-related knowledge and attitudes.

Treatment:

Other: VR-360 Dementia Education

CG-VR Group

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in this arm received a computer-generated virtual reality (CG-VR) dementia education intervention delivered through an interactive virtual learning environment to enhance dementia-related knowledge and attitudes.

Treatment:

Other: CG VR Dementia Education