| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,790,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥90,000)
Fiscal Year 2007: ¥390,000 (Direct Cost: ¥300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥90,000)
Fiscal Year 2006: ¥3,400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,400,000)
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| Research Abstract |
This study examined the effects of therapeutic exercise in a virtual environment (VE), using virtual reality (VR) technologies.
In this study, 2 groups of 30 healthy university students (an average of 22 years old) and 10 elderly persons(an average of 81 years old) were evaluated based on health psychology. The university students performed a VR sport and a simply repeated movement. Then, the profile of mood states (POMS) was used to evaluate their mood, while salivary amylase activity and heart rate changes (R-R interval) were measured to evaluate their quantitative stress. The elderly persons performed a VR sport for 16 weeks. Then, muscle strength, standing balance, center of gravity sway, and walking ability were measured to evaluate their physical functions. Regarding evaluation based on health psychology, the revised version of Hasegawa dementia scale (HDS-R) was measured by dementia screening test, the hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) was used to evaluate their anxiety and depression, and POMS was used to evaluate their mood.
In the student group, their upper limb movements when they performed VR table tennis were compared with their simply repeated shoulder joint movements (both movements are similar in the direction of shoulder joint movement). Consequently, in both movements, no significant changes were observed in the salivary amylase activity. Regarding R-R interval changes, the change in autonomic nerve activity was smaller in the VR table tennis than in the repeated movement. Regarding POMS, their positive mood tended to be high and their negative mood tended to be low when they performed the VR table tennis. In the elderly group, no significant changes were observed in their physical functions, even after VR therapeutic exercise for 16 weeks. However, average points of anxiety and depression and HDS-R scores were significantly higher after the therapy.
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