Virtual Reality Environments in Pain Management

2022 ◽  
pp. 281-301
Author(s):  
Inês Pinho ◽  
Cindy Santos ◽  
Inês Brito ◽  
João Coelho ◽  
Vítor Simões-Silva ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Pain Management ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Subjective Feeling ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Consequent Improvement ◽  
Health And Well Being

Pain is a distressing and subjective feeling that occurs in different intensities and may result from the stimulation of a nerve due to injury, illness, or emotional disturbance. This chapter aims to understand how VR can contribute to pain management. To this end, the authors will address topics such as: pain – types of pain and its consequences in everyday life, as well as ways to relieve it; virtual reality – what it consists of, its functionalities and components, as well as its application to health and well-being, its advantages and limitations; and virtual reality in pain management. It is intended to emphasize the importance of pain management for the daily lives of individuals and the consequent improvement in the quality of life of those who benefit from this type of intervention.

scholarly journals Virtual reality-based relaxation for enhancement of perioperative well-being and quality of life: protocol for a randomised pilot trial

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. e044193
Author(s):  
Matthias Christian Schrempf ◽  
Julian Quirin Petzold ◽  
Hugo Vachon ◽  
Morten Aagaard Petersen ◽  
Johanna Gutschon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Sample Size ◽  
Stress Reduction ◽  
Pilot Trial ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Coping Resources ◽  
Patients With Cancer ◽  
Sample Size Calculations

IntroductionPatients with cancer undergoing surgery often suffer from reduced quality of life and various forms of distress. Untreated distress can negatively affect coping resources as well as surgical and oncological outcomes. A virtual reality-based stress reduction intervention may increase quality of life and well-being and reduce distress in the perioperative phase for patients with cancer. This pilot trial aims to explore the feasibility of the proposed intervention, assess patient acceptability and obtain estimates of effect to provide data for sample size calculations.Methods and analysisPatients with colorectal cancer and liver metastasis undergoing elective surgery will be recruited for this single-centre, randomised pilot trial with a three-arm design. A total of 54 participants will be randomised at 1:1:1 ratio to one of two intervention groups or a control receiving standard treatment. Those randomised to an intervention group will either receive perioperative virtual reality-based stress reduction exercises twice daily or listen to classical music twice daily. Primary feasibility outcomes are number and proportions of participants recruited, screened, consented and randomised. Furthermore, adherence to the intervention, compliance with the completion of the quality of life questionnaires and feasibility of implementing the trial procedures will be assessed. Secondary clinical outcomes are measurements of the effectiveness of the interventions to inform sample size calculations.Ethics and disseminationThe study protocol, the patient information and the informed consent form have been approved by the ethics committee of the Ludwigs-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany (Reference Number: 19–915). Study findings will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals.Trial registration numberDRKS00020909.

scholarly journals Monitoring Health Parameters of Elders to Support Independent Living and Improve Their Quality of Life

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 517
Author(s):  
Ilia Adami ◽  
Michalis Foukarakis ◽  
Stavroula Ntoa ◽  
Nikolaos Partarakis ◽  
Nikolaos Stefanakis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Independent Living ◽  
Elderly Population ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Chronic Illnesses ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Health And Well Being

Improving the well-being and quality of life of the elderly population is closely related to assisting them to effectively manage age-related conditions such as chronic illnesses and anxiety, and to maintain their independence and self-sufficiency as much as possible. This paper presents the design, architecture and implementation structure of an adaptive system for monitoring the health and well-being of the elderly. The system was designed following best practices of the Human-Centred Design approach involving representative end-users from the early stages.

Virtual reality for pain management in advanced heart failure: A randomized controlled study

2021 ◽  
pp. 026921632110412
Author(s):  
Hunter Groninger ◽  
Diana Stewart ◽  
Julia M Fisher ◽  
Eshetu Tefera ◽  
James Cowgill ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Heart Failure ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Pain Management ◽  
Guided Imagery ◽  
Advanced Heart Failure ◽  
Controlled Study ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
General Distress

Background: Hospitalized patients with advanced heart failure often experience acute and/or chronic pain. While virtual reality has been extensively studied across a wide range of clinical settings, no studies have yet evaluated potential impact on pain management on this patient population. Aim: To investigate the impact of a virtual reality experience on self-reported pain, quality-of-life, general distress, and satisfaction compared to a two-dimensional guided imagery active control. Design: Single-center prospective randomized controlled study. The primary outcome was the difference in pre- versus post-intervention self-reported pain scores on a numerical rating scale from 0 to 10. Secondary outcomes included changes in quality-of-life scores, general distress, and satisfaction with the intervention. Setting/participants: Between October 2018 and March 2020, 88 participants hospitalized with advanced heart failure were recruited from an urban tertiary academic medical center. Results: Participants experienced significant improvement in pain score after either 10 minutes of virtual reality (change from pre- to post −2.9 ± 2.6, p < 0.0001) or 10 minutes of guided imagery (change from pre- to post −1.3 ± 1.8, p = 0.0001); the virtual reality arm experienced a 1.5 unit comparatively greater reduction in pain score compared to guided imagery ( p = 0.0011). Total quality-of-life and general distress scores did not significantly change for either arm. Seventy-eight participants (89%) responded that they would be willing to use the assigned intervention again. Conclusion: Virtual reality may be an effective nonpharmacologic adjuvant pain management intervention in hospitalized patients with heart failure. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov database (NCT04572425).

Evaluation of Quality of Context Information in U-Health Smart Homes

2012 ◽  
pp. 179-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Bringel Filho ◽  
Nazim Agoulmine
Keyword(s):  
Health Systems ◽  
Smart Homes ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Context Information ◽  
Context Aware ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Quality Of Context ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Health And Well Being

Ubiquitous Health (U-Health) smart homes are intelligent spaces capable of observing and correctly recognizing the activities and health statuses of their inhabitants (context) to provide the appropriate support to achieve an overall sense of health and well-being in their inhabitants’ daily lives. With the intrinsic heterogeneity and large number of sources of context information, aggregating and reasoning on low-quality raw sensed data may result in conflicting and erroneous evaluations of situations, affecting directly the reliability of the U-Health systems. In this environment, the evaluation and verification of Quality of Context (QoC) information plays a central role in improving the consistency and correctness of context-aware U-Health applications. Therefore, the objective of this chapter is to highlight the impact of QoC on the correct behavior of U-Health systems, and introduce and analyze the existing approaches of modeling, evaluating, and using QoC to improve its context-aware decision-making support.

Environmental Issues, Natural Resources, and Quality of Life

Modern Egypt ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce K. Rutherford ◽  
Jeannie L. Sowers
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Health And Well Being

How Do Environmental Problems Affect Egypt? Egypt faces grave environmental problems that negatively impact the health and well-being of its citizens and threaten the country’s unique natural and cultural heritages. Like many middle and low-income “developing” countries, Egypt must grapple with environmental problems associated with...

Africanizing Science Education

2016 ◽  
pp. 120-147
Author(s):  
Irene U. Osisioma
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Science Education ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Science Instruction ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Peaceful Coexistence ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Environment Quality ◽  
Economic Well Being

The development of Science and Technology has been positively associated with every nation's economic well-being and quality of life. Even though the importance of science in people's daily lives may not be readily noticeable, people engage in many science related activities and experiences, most of which enable them to make science-related decisions and choices every day. This implies that science education will continue to shape humanity, the environment, quality of life, sustainability of the planet, and peaceful coexistence. Effective participation in the scientifically and technologically driven world of the 21st Century implies a science education that produces scientifically literate citizens. This chapter provides justification for rethinking the way science education should be done in Africa generally, and Nigeria, in specific. Recommendations were made for the use of context-based science instruction as an effective way to Africanize science instruction.

scholarly journals Puréed Foods: High Protein

EDIS ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamila R. Lepore ◽  
Wendy J. Dahl
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Well Being ◽  
High Protein ◽  
Human Nutrition ◽  
Food Science ◽  
Fact Sheet ◽  
Modified Diet ◽  
Health And Well Being

Protein is an important nutrient. Many older adults do not consume enough of this vital nutrient, crucial to overall health and well-being. For those with dysphagia and on a puréed diet, consuming sufficient protein is even more difficult. While a texture-modified diet may not be the diet of choice, the goal is to make it as appealing as possible so that the person consuming the purées can experience a better quality of life. This 4-page fact sheet was written by Jamila R. Lepore and Wendy J. Dahl and published by the UF Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, March 2013.http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fs208 Revised July 2016 and March 2020. 

scholarly journals Quality of Life in Relation to the Level of Physical Activity Among Healthy Young Adults at Saudi Arabia

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 281-287
Author(s):  
Amal A. Kokandi ◽  
Jafar Salman Alkhalaf ◽  
Asmaa Mohammedsaleh
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Physical Activity ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Male Subjects ◽  
Health And Well Being ◽  
Female Subjects

Physical activity is known to have benefits on health and well-being. The aim of this study was to assess the quality of life domains (using WHOQOL-Bref) in relation to the level of physical activity in young healthy adults at Saudi Arabia. An online questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF and IPAQ) was sent to adults without special needs in Saudi Arabia aged 18 years and more. In total 1026 completed the questionnaire. Females were 767 and males were 250 (9 were missing). Results of this study showed that IPAQ total score was significantly correlated with WHOQOL-BREF physical, psychological and social relationships health scores. Additionally, the high PA group had a significantly higher WHOQOL-BREF for all domains (physical, psychological, social relationships and environmental health scores) compared to the low PA group. Male subjects had a significantly higher physical health score than female subjects, however, female subjects had a significantly higher social relationships score. In conclusion, high physical activity is linked with high better quality of life in all domains.

scholarly journals BOTTOM-UP STRATEGIES FOR COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND INFORMAL LEARNING: TARGETING MEN AGED 60 YEARS OR MORE

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Gregorčič
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Qualitative Research Study ◽  
Community Based Learning ◽  
Health And Well Being

The article presents findings from a large-scale qualitative research study conducted as part of a three-year Erasmus+ project entitled Old Guys Say Yes to Community, which included partners from Slovenia, Portugal, Poland and Estonia. The project explored how inactive ageing affects the quality of life, health and well-being of men aged 60 years or more, and how (self-)exclusion from the community can lead to social and psychological ‘death’. The article highlights four interconnected themes which are inadequately, insufficiently, or simply not addressed by national institutions and often also the non-governmental sector in the researched countries. The themes – the pluralisation of transitions to retirement and ageing; absent bodies and invisible lives; hegemonic masculinity and gendered experiences; and community-based learning, action and spaces – are supported by well-defined issues and obstacles preventing men from integrating into the community and are completed with suggestions and recommendations to implement much-needed changes. In addition to these four themes, the article touches upon a series of subtopics and questions that should be addressed by further scientific research in the observed countries.

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