The Effectiveness of a Virtual Reality-based Educational Intervention on Anxiety Symptoms, Pain Levels, and Physiological Indicator Outcomes in Surgical Patients

This study adopted a randomized controlled trial design. The inclusion criteria for the study subjects were adults aged 18 years or older who were undergoing scheduled hip and knee replacement surgery and were scheduled to undergo spinal anesthesia, had no anxiety disorders, no visual or hearing impairments, were conscious, could understand and read Chinese, and had a general health status of the American Society of Anesthesiologists grade I to III; the exclusion criteria were those who had head trauma, had a history of dizziness, and had to be transferred to the intensive care unit due to illness. The cases were assigned to the experimental group (virtual reality education and conventional care) and the control group (conventional care and unit health education film) by block randomization. The intervention measure was a virtual reality education intervention program. The data collection method was a total of four repeated measurements including: baseline value (one day before surgery), from the day of surgery to the front desk of the operating room, one day after surgery, and three days after surgery. The research tools included basic information, situation-trait anxiety scale, anxiety visual scale, pain visual scale, Virtual Reality Education Satisfaction Questionnaire and physiological indicators for data collection.

Inclusion criteria

• Must be 18 years of age or older.
• Must be scheduled for orthopedic surgery and be scheduled to undergo spinal anesthesia.
• Must have no anxiety disorders, no visual or auditory impairments, be fully conscious, and be able to understand and read Chinese.
• Must be classified as a Class I to III by the American College of Anesthesiologists.

Exclusion criteria

• Previous head injury.
• History of dizziness.
• Patient requiring transfer to the intensive care unit due to their condition.