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Updated: Jul 7, 2026
The Immersive Cleveland Clinic Virtual Reality Shopping Platform for the Assessment of Instrumental Activities of Daily Living
Published on: July 28, 2022
Do the physical characteristics of a virtual reality device contraindicate its use for balance assessment?
Jason P Mihalik1, Luv Kohli, Mary C Whitton
1Department of Exercise and Sport Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. jmihalik@email.unc.edu
Context:
Virtual reality environments may allow researchers to investigate functional balance performance without risks associated with testing in the real world.
Objective:
To investigate the effects of the mass of a head-mounted display (HMD) on balance performance.
Design:
Counterbalanced pretest-posttest.
Setting:
Virtual reality laboratory.
Participants:
20 healthy college students.
Intervention(S):
Balance Error Scoring System (BESS) with a tracker-only headband and again with tracker plus HMD was performed.
Main Outcome Measures:
BESS error scores, elliptical sway area, and center of pressure travel distance were recorded.
Results:
No effect of the HMD mass on balance performance was observed. A significant stance by surface interaction was present but was negated when the HMD conditions were included in the model.
Conclusions:
The mass of a HMD has not been proven to adversely affect balance performance. These data suggest the HMD mass is not a contraindication to the use of immersive virtual environments in future concussion research involving balance.
