Synergistic Effects of Therapeutic Exercise in a Virtual Environment on Physical and Cognitive Functions of the Elderly

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This study investigated the synergistic effects of therapeutic exercise in a virtual environment (virtual reality (VR) sports) on the physical and cognitive functions of the elderly. First, healthy university students tested the safety of the VR sports and the effectiveness of the chosen VR sports images. Actual users of geriatric health care facilities then performed the VR sports for three months as recreation (VR sports group). The average ratio of lower extremity muscle mass to body weight slightly increased (by 1.1%) in the VR sports group. Although the Revised Hasegawa's Dementia Scale (HDS-R) tended to improve in the VR sports group, from 18.3 at the initiation of the VR sports to 20.7 at the completion, no significant difference was observed in HDS-R between the VR sports and control groups. Future research will require setting a clear visual target and simple rules, and development of new visual images.