NCT06793384

Virtual Reality in Cognitive Stimulation Therapy for Visually Impaired Older Individuals with Dementia

Applying Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST) and Virtual Reality-based CST on People with Concurrent Visual Impairment and Dementia: a Feasibility Pilot Study

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 31 (actual)
• Sponsor: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 60 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Both visual impairment and dementia are prevalent in the elderly population. Cognitive stimulation therapy (CST) is an evidence-based intervention for people with mild-to-moderate dementia. Virtual reality (VR) has been used in cognitive rehabilitation. However, the efficacy of CST and the feasibility of incorporating VR into therapy targeting people with dementia and visual impairment (PwDVI) have rarely been explored. The current pilot study addressed two issues: 1) To study the efficacy of conventional CST on PwDVI in different cognitive domains and 2) To explore the feasibility and efficacy of VR-CST on PwDVI in various cognitive domains.

Conditions

• Dementia Patients

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Virtual reality based Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (VR-CST)	In the VR-CST condition, participants wore a head-mounted display (HMD; model: DPVR P1 Pro Headset) for the themed activities in every session except sessions 1 and 14. In these two sessions, group physical activities (such as passing a ball from one participant to another) were conducted, so no HMDs were used. In other sessions, panoramic images (e.g., wet market) and videos (e.g., the neighborhood surroundings) prepared by the project team were mainly used, supplemented by 2-dimensional images /videos in which preparing panoramic images/videos was deemed impossible. Such a situation occurred in Session 5 (current affairs), in which news clips or captions from newspaper websites served as more appropriate content for discussion than self-created panoramic images/videos.
BEHAVIORAL	Conventional Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (Conventional CST)	In the conventional CST group, 2-dimensional images/videos illustrating content identical to the VR-CST condition were displayed via tablet computers (see Table 2 for details) in which participants could manipulate the size of the image depicted or the pace of the videos with the help of the facilitator/therapy assistant.

Timeline

• Start date: 2019-09-01
• Primary completion: 2020-02-28
• Completion: 2020-05-31
• First posted: 2025-01-27
• Last updated: 2025-01-27

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Hong Kong