A Dementia-Friendly Educational Program Using Virtual Reality for the General Public in Japan: A Randomized Controlled Trial for DRIVE

Haruno Suzuki; Ayumi Igarashi; Hiroshige Matsumoto; Haruna Kugai; Manami Takaoka; Mariko Sakka; Kenichiro Ito; Yasuhiro Hagiwara; Noriko Yamamoto-Mitani

doi:10.1093/geront/gnae113

A Dementia-Friendly Educational Program Using Virtual Reality for the General Public in Japan: A Randomized Controlled Trial for DRIVE

Gerontologist. 2024 Nov 1;64(11):gnae113. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnae113.

Authors

Haruno Suzuki^{1

2}, Ayumi Igarashi², Hiroshige Matsumoto³, Haruna Kugai⁴, Manami Takaoka², Mariko Sakka⁵, Kenichiro Ito⁶, Yasuhiro Hagiwara⁷, Noriko Yamamoto-Mitani²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physiological Nursing, School of Nursing, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
² Department of Gerontological Home Care and Long-term Care Nursing, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
³ Department of Community Health Nursing, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
⁴ Global Nursing Research Center, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
⁵ Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
⁶ Information Technology Center, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
⁷ Department of Biostatistics, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.

Abstract

Background and objectives: Raising dementia awareness is essential for building a dementia-friendly community. However, existing studies have underexplored the effects of virtual reality (VR) dementia educational programs for the general public on enhancing positive attitude toward dementia. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of a VR dementia-friendly educational program called the Drive for Dementia Readiness Inside Virtual Reality (DRIVE) program to improve attitude toward dementia of the general public.

Research design and methods: A two-arm randomized controlled trial was conducted. Eligibility criteria for participants included being 16 years and older in Japan and having no professional license in healthcare and social care. We randomized individuals to attend a multielement VR dementia-friendly educational program (intervention), including simulation, VR films, short films, lectures, and discussions or a lecture-based program (control). Data were collected 3 times, including at baseline, postintervention, and 3-month follow-up. The primary outcome was attitude toward dementia. The secondary outcomes were intention of helping behavior for people living with dementia and knowledge of dementia.

Results: We recruited 157 community residents, among whom 130 were included in the analysis. Although the mean changes in attitude score were not significantly different between the groups (Hedge's g = 0.26), the intention of helping behavior score was significantly higher in the intervention group (g = 0.49).

Discussion and implication: The DRIVE, a VR-based multielement dementia-friendly educational intervention, was shown as a promising tool for significantly affecting the intention of helping behavior for people living with dementia to establish dementia-friendly communities.

Clinical trials registration number: UMIN000044901.

Keywords: Attitude; Dementia-friendly; Education; Helping behavior; Virtual reality.

Publication types

Randomized Controlled Trial

MeSH terms

Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Dementia*
Female
Health Education / methods
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Humans
Japan
Male
Middle Aged
Virtual Reality*

Grants and funding

19H03956/Japan Society for the Promotion of Science