Virtual reality exposure therapy to decrease anxiety before surgical invasive procedures in hemodialysis patients: an interventional study

• Published in: BMC nephrology 2024-01, Vol.25 (1), p.30-7, Article 30
• Main Authors: Hosseini, Tahereh, Hooshmandja, Manijeh, Noaparast, Morteza, Mojtahedzadeh, Rita, Mohammadi, Aeen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anxiety; Care and treatment; Computer applications; Disease; Exposure therapy; Hemodialysis; Hemodialysis patients; Hospitals; Likert scale; Methods; Operative; Patients; Population studies; Preoperative care; Psychological aspects; Renal dialysis; Renal failure; Surgery; Surgical procedures; Testing; Therapeutics; Virtual communities; Virtual reality
• ISSN: 1471-2369; 1471-2369
• DOI: 10.1186/s12882-024-03461-w

Hemodialysis patients are prone to anxiety and depression due to physiological changes and psychological tensions that leave irreversible effects on the patients. In this regard, the present study was an attempt to provide a simulated situation by using virtual reality on the anxiety level of dialysis patients before performing surgical procedures. This non-equivalent groups pre-posttest quasi-experimental study was conducted in 2022 in a hemodialysis ward of Imam Khomeini General Hospital affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences. The study population was patients suffering from kidney failure referred to this hospital. The participants were 30 patients selected from the study population, who were allocated into two groups (15 in each experimental and control group). The control group received routine training in the ward. The experimental group participants watched five educational virtual reality (VR) contents in addition to the routine training. They used head-mounted display VR (VR BOX headset 2.0 virtual reality glasses) to immerse in a virtual environment similar to the real world covering the experience of entering the operating room, during the surgery, and after surgery. The data gathering instrument was a valid and reliable anxiety inventory. The collected data was analyzed at a significance level of 0.05. The study findings indicated that the anxiety scores of the experimental and control groups had no significant difference before intervention. However, after the intervention of virtual reality, the state and trait anxiety of the experimental group participants were significantly lower than the control group (P-value