The effectiveness of virtual reality interventions in improving balance in adults with impaired balance compared to standard or no treatment: A systematic review.

Background: Balance impairment can result in falls and reduced activities of daily living and function. Virtual reality and interactive gaming systems provide a novel and potentially environmentally flexible treatment option to improve postural stability and reduce falls in balance impaired populations. There are no existing systematic reviews in this topic area.

Objectives: To search, critically appraise and synthesise the best available evidence on whether virtual reality interventions, including interactive gaming systems, are effective at improving balance in adults with impaired balance.

Inclusion Criteria: Adults with impaired, altered or reduced balance identified either through reduced balance outcome measure score or increased risk or incidence of falls.Types of interventions:Any virtual reality or interactive gaming systems used within a rehabilitative setting.The primary outcome was an objective measure of balance (i.e. balance outcome measure such as Berg Balance Score) or number and/or incidence of falls. Secondary outcome measures of interest included any adverse effects experienced, an outcome measure indicating functional balance (i.e. walking speed), quality of life (through use of an objective measure i.e. EuroQOL), and number of days in hospital due to falls.Types of studies:Randomised controlled trials (RCT).

Search Strategy: A three-stage strategy searched the following electronic databases: The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, EMBASE, AMED, CINAHL, PsycINFO, PsycBITE, OTseeker, Ei Compendex, Inspec, Current Controlled Trials, and the National Institute of Health Clinical Trials Database.

Methodological Quality: The methodological quality of each included study was independently assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute Meta Analysis of Statistics Assessment and Review Instrument (JBI-MAStARI) to systematically comment on influence of bias.

Data Collection: Data was individually extracted from the included studies using the standardised JBI data extraction tool from JBI-MAStARI.

Data Synthesis: Data was analysed using Review Manager 5 software. Results were expressed as mean difference (MD) with 95% confidence intervals for continuous outcomes. Meta-analysis was not possible due to the variation of the interventions given and small number of included trials; hence, a description of the results was given.

Results: Four studies were included in the systematic review. All the included studies used different types of virtual reality or interactive gaming interventions. Two of the included studies used the same balance outcome measure. There was a notable inconsistency of balance outcome measurement between all the included studies. No data was given regarding falls in any of the studies. A secondary outcome, the 10m walk test, was recorded in two of the studies.

Conclusions: The four included studies had small sample sizes and poor methodological quality. Despite the presentation of statistically significant results, the clinical significance is questionable.

Implications For Practice: The review can not recommend the inclusion of virtual reality or interactive gaming systems into the rehabilitation of balance impairment based on the results of the four included studies.

Implications For Research: Further investigation in this topic area is required.