Immersive Virtual Reality in CP Rehabilitation
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Examining the Feasibility of Immersive Virtual Reality to Measure Upper Limb Motor Performance in Children and Young People with Cerebral Palsy
IRAS ID
330082
Contact name
Craig Williams
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Exeter
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 31 days
Research summary
Over the last five years, virtual reality (VR) has become more popular in cerebral palsy (CP) rehabilitation. VR can provide an optimal environment to promote children’s motivation and engagement during therapeutic sessions, which are key pillars in CP rehabilitation. However, the research on immersive VR (e.g., VR headsets) and young people with CP is limited. Therefore, the aims of this project are to examine the extent to which VR headsets are feasible for children and young people with CP, to identify any adverse effects of using headsets with participants and to test if children’s upper-limb motor performance can be assessed through this technology.
Participants and their parents will be identified by searching the Epic electronic patient record (EPR) and then writing an invitation by letter and e-mail individually to the parents. Thereafter, all the proposed procedures for this project will be conducted in one visit to a research laboratory at St Luke’s Campus of the University of Exeter. The VR task used in this study will be a circle drawing task delivered through a Meta Quest 2 headset. The outcome measures will be: 1) System Usability Scale (SUS), 2) Duruoz Hand Index (DHI), 3) Box and Block Test (BBT) and 4) circle drawing metrics captured and collected during the VR experiment. In total, this study should take no longer than an hour to complete.
This project will provide the first feasibility assessment of VR headsets to deliver easy-to-complete circle drawing tasks to children and young people with CP. Results will highlight the potential value of these headsets in paediatric physiotherapy practice.
This project is funded by the University of Exeter and Taibah University, Saudi Arabia.
REC name
North East - Tyne & Wear South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/NE/0188
Date of REC Opinion
13 Oct 2023
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion