Acceptance of a Virtual Reality Headset Designed for Fall Prevention in Older Adults: Questionnaire Study

Abstract

Background Falls are a common phenomenon among people aged 65 and older and affect older adults’ health, quality of life, and autonomy. Technology-based intervention programs are designed to prevent the occurrence of falls and their effectiveness often surpasses that of more conventional programs. However, to be effective, these programs must first be accepted by seniors. Objective Based on the technology acceptance model, this study aimed to examine the acceptance among older adults before a first use of a virtual reality headset (VRH) used in an intervention program designed to prevent falls. Methods A sample of 271 French older adults (mean age 73.69 years, SD 6.37 years) voluntarily and anonymously filled out a questionnaire containing the focal constructs (perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, perceived ease of use, intention to use, fall-related self-efficacy, and self-avoidance goals) adapted to the VRH, which was designed to prevent falls. Results The results of the structural equation modeling analysis showed that intention to use the VRH was positively predicted by perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, and perceived ease of use. Perceived usefulness of the VRH was also negatively predicted by fall-related self-efficacy (ie, the perceived level of confidence of an individual when performing daily activities without falling) and positively predicted by self-avoidance goals (ie, participating in a physical activity to avoid physical regression). Conclusions A better understanding of the initial acceptance among older adults of this VRH is the first step to involving older adults in intervention programs designed to prevent falls using this kind of device.

Acceptance of a Mobile Telepresence Robot, before Use, to Remotely Supervise Older Adults’ Adapted Physical Activity

“…Perceived ease of use was the lowest predictor of intention to use, while remaining a significant predictor, indicating that this predictor is relevant for older adults who are not always familiar with technologies [ 27 ] but also that it is not the most important factor for them in terms of MTR acceptance. This pattern of results has been found in several studies conducted with older adults and with other innovative technologies such as virtual reality head-mounted display [ 15 ]. Perceived ease of use was also found in the present study to be the variable with the highest score compared with the mean of the scale.…”

“…Participants responded to the four items assessing perceived usefulness (e.g., “Using this robot would allow me to do physical activity efficiently” ), the three items assessing perceived ease of use (e.g., “I think it would be easy to learn how to use this robot” ), the three items assessing perceived enjoyment (e.g., “Using this robot would be fun” ), the three items assessing subjective norms (e.g., “The people who are important to me would encourage me to use this robot” ), and the three items assessing intention to use (e.g., “If I had the opportunity to have easy access to this robot, I would like to use it” ) on a Likert scale from 1 ( strongly disagree ) to 5 ( strongly agree ). These items were developed based on items commonly used in the TAM and on other studies specifically investigating technology acceptance by older adults [ 15 , 28 ].…”

“…However, we complemented the TAM with two other variables: perceived enjoyment (i.e., the degree to which the use of technology is perceived to be enjoyable, regardless of its effectiveness) and subjective norms (i.e., the degree to which an individual perceived that the people around him/her would encourage him/her (or not) to use this technology). In the TAM literature [ 15 , 16 ], perceived enjoyment is currently considered a positive predictor of intention to use a technology, while subjective norms were positive predictors of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived enjoyment.…”

Application of Virtual Reality Technology in Clinical Practice, Teaching, and Research in Complementary and Alternative Medicine

“…It is the abovementioned characteristics of VR technology that make it loved by many people and widely used in many fields, such as the medical field. To date, VR has successfully been applied in many clinical settings [ 1 ], such as helping to treat anxiety disorders [ 37 , 38 ], alleviating fear [ 39 ], managing pain [ 33 , 34 , 40 ], supporting physical recovery [ 41 ], and preventing falls in elderly individuals [ 42 ]. Furthermore, an interactive training system for public health emergency preparedness for major emerging infectious diseases based on VR should be established [ 43 ].…”

Virtual Reality-based Cognitive Intervention for Enhancing Executive Functions in Community-dwelling Older Adults

“…Although exposure to VR application may result in symptoms of motion sickness for some people (e.g., eye fatigue, headaches, and nausea) (Park et al, 2019), its advantages include a secure environment, high ecological validity, and an inexpensive aid to support active aging (Appel et al, 2020;Kim et al, 2021;Syed-Abdul et al, 2019). A previous study revealed the acceptance (or positive perception) of older adults toward using VR (Mascret et al, 2020), namely, they perceived the VR to be useful, an enjoyable experience, and easy to use (Mascret et al, 2020;Syed-Abdul et al, 2019). Additionally, several studies have implemented the VR intervention in clinical settings with children and adolescent populations, but there have been fewer studies focusing on the older adult population (Skurla et al, 2021).…”