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Updated: May 29, 2026
Development of a Virtual Reality Assessment of Everyday Living Skills
Published on: April 23, 2014
A pilot feasibility study of a tablet-based virtual community application with shared avatars for promoting health
Kenji Nakamura1,2, Keiichi Yamazaki3, Akiko Yamazaki4
1Center for Mathematics and Data Science, Gunma University, Gunma, Japan.
Background:
Maintaining exercise and medication habits is crucial for older adults, but conventional reminder-based digital interventions often produce only transient effects.
Methods:
We conducted a mixed-methods pilot feasibility study comparing a reminder-only intervention (Experiment 1, N = 10) with a healthcare community app combining reminders and avatar-based virtual social interaction (Experiment 2, N = 10) in older adult care facilities over 4-week baseline and 4-week intervention periods. Primary outcomes were daily step counts and medication adherence.
Results:
The Reminder group showed a transient increase in step count in Week 1 (+16%) that declined to below baseline by Week 4 (-10.3%). In contrast, the Reminder + Support group maintained substantial step count improvements throughout the intervention (Week 4: +58.4%), with statistically significant differences at all time points. Medication adherence showed similar trends. A between-group comparison (Mann-Whitney U = 11.0, p < 0.05) supported greater efficacy of the Reminder + Support intervention. Qualitative data confirmed higher satisfaction and stronger social motivation in the Reminder + Support group.
Conclusion:
These preliminary findings suggest that integrating avatar-based social interaction with reminder functions may support more sustained health behavior change in older adults than reminders alone, warranting confirmation in larger randomized trials.
