Lifestyle change for daily life with immersive virtual reality: a systematic scoping review of interventions for people with chronic- or life-threatening somatic conditions

Objective: Lifestyle change is essential for managing chronic- or life-threatening somatic conditions. Virtual reality offers opportunities for designing immersive and engaging lifestyle interventions that enable patients to translate behavioural changes into daily living. This review maps the state-of-the-art to provide directions for future research and intervention development.

Methods: A systematic scoping review was conducted by searching five bibliographic databases to explore the characteristics and feasibility of immersive virtual reality interventions for lifestyle change in people with chronic- or life-threatening somatic conditions.

Results: Forty-seven studies met inclusion criteria, and three different lifestyle behaviours were addressed in ten different conditions. Stress management (63.8%) was widespread, whereas physical exercise (19.1%), diet (4.3%), and combinations (12.8%) were less frequent. Gamification elements were often used (85.1%), unlike adaptation (27.7%) or personalisation (25.5%). Interventions focusing on the process of lifestyle change without performances of the target behaviour during immersion were scarce (8.5%). Feasibility-, acceptability-, and user experience outcomes were mainly positive despite some technical issues and side effects.

Conclusion: Future directions revolve around combining adaptation and personalisation, improving user experience, exploring the role of gamification, and adjusting the focus on practising lifestyle behaviour based on individual goal-setting- and behaviour change stages.