Virtual Reality as a Dietary Education Adjunct for Pediatric Patients With Obesity

Stanford University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Diabetes

Treatments: Behavioral: Virtual Reality Application

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05141214

63298

Details and patient eligibility

About

Childhood obesity is a national crisis, effecting up to 1 in 5 of children in the US. In the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Pediatric Weight Management Clinic, the investigators educate parents and caregivers about the importance of dietary modification. In addition to physician guidance, the investigators partner with registered dieticians to counsel families during an hour-long interview. However, traditional methods of education are limited by long-term recall. A typical person only recalls 2- 3% of didactic content after a period of 30 days. In order to improve recall and increase involvement of our pediatric patients in their own dietary modifications, the investigators propose a pragmatic, randomized pilot study investigating the effectiveness of Virtual Reality (VR) in changing dietary choices and improving recall.

Enrollment: 48 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 6 to 18 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Ages 6-18 years of age
• Able to consent or have parental consent
• Diagnosis of Obesity Grade 1, 2 and 3 at LPCH/SHC facilities

Exclusion criteria

• People who do not consent
• Significant Cognitive Impairment
• History of Severe Motion Sickness
• Visual Problems

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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48 participants in 2 patient groups

Dietary Consult with Virtual Reality (intervention)

Active Comparator group

Description:

Those in the VR group will receive the same educational dietary review by the registered dietician, and additionally participate in a VR experience through an application called Chaos Café. In Chaos Café, patients are immersed into a computer-generated kitchen environment. A humorous robotic chef serves children different food groups. Gameplay is advanced by choosing healthy foods, while eating unhealthy foods does not advance the application.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Virtual Reality Application

Dietary Consult without Virtual Reality (SOC)

No Intervention group

Description:

Those in the SOC group will have the typical appointment, which includes a review of healthy diet choices with a registered dietitian and follow up according to clinic's SOC.