The Effects of Immersive Virtual Reality in Reducing Public Stigma of Mental Illness in the University Population of Hong Kong: Randomized Controlled Trial

• Published in: Journal of medical Internet research 2021-07, Vol.23 (7), p.e23683-e23683
• Main Authors: Yuen, Anna S Y, Mak, Winnie W S
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activities of daily living; Animation; Bias; Biostatistics; Clinical research; Clinical trials; Depressive personality disorders; Education; Illnesses; Intervention; Mental depression; Mental disorders; Mental health; Narration; Original Paper; Public opinion; Racism; Schizophrenia; Side effects; Simulation; Social identity; Stereotypes; Stigma; Transportation; Virtual reality
• ISSN: 1438-8871; 1439-4456; 1438-8871
• DOI: 10.2196/23683

Background: Public stigma in mental health often brings various adverse effects on people with mental illness. Researchers have been developing different interventions in combating public stigma. Objective: This study investigates the effects of immersive virtual reality (IVR) in reducing the public stigma of mental illness using a single-blinded randomized control trial. Methods: A pre-post experimental design with a 1-week follow-up was conducted. Participants (N=206) were recruited through the mass mail system of The Chinese University of Hong Kong and randomized into 3 conditions: immersive animation, text, and control. In the immersive animation condition (n=72), participants experienced the simulation of daily life and the stigma experienced as an animated story protagonist with mixed anxiety and depressive disorder with IVR. In the text condition (n=65), participants experienced an identical story to the immersive animation condition with first-person audio narration using the same virtual reality headset. In the control condition (n=69), participants watched a video about planets with IVR. All participants received interventions with a researcher-assisted Oculus Go virtual reality headset. Participants’ public stigma was measured through self-administered online questionnaires and compared across conditions and at different time points using repeated measures analysis of variance. Simple and sequential mediation analyses on the relationship of condition (immersive animation vs text) and follow-up public stigma with possible mediators, including sense of embodiment and story transportation, were conducted using PROCESS. Results: Public stigma did not differ significantly across conditions at pre-experiment (P>.99). In the immersive animation and text conditions, public stigma was significantly reduced at postexperiment and at the 1-week follow-up compared to pre-experiment (all with P.99). In simple mediation models, both sense of embodiment (95% CI –0.22 to 0.46) and sto