Acceptance of Virtual Reality Among Adults with Rheumatologic Conditions

Risk communication to patients with rheumatologic conditions is difficult. Virtual reality (VR) has demonstrated utility as a delivery mechanism for patient education, but user acceptance of this technology for applications such as communicating risks and benefits of health care interventions and medical treatments has been poorly studied. We aimed to assess the acceptability of VR as an educational tool among people with rheumatologic conditions and to compare acceptability among those who had used VR in the past to those who are VR naïve. A cross-sectional, web-based survey was conducted, sampling two populations: members of an online patient-powered research network (registry) that included adults with rheumatologic conditions, and patients within a large U.S. community rheumatology practice-based research network. Survey items included patient demographic and clinical characteristics, prior VR experience, perceived usefulness for learning about their condition, anticipated enjoyment, and willingness to use VR to manage disease. A total of 3927 individuals completed the survey. Overall, 14.9% reported having prior experience using VR, and of these, 54.0% had used it only one to two times. Twenty-nine percent of participants agreed that VR would be useful for learning about their condition (25.4% of VR naïve, 49.0% of VR experienced [p < 0.001]), while the majority of participants (62.6%) were unsure (66.1% of VR naïve, 42.7% of VR experienced [p < 0.001]). More than one-third (38.9%) of participants agreed that they would enjoy using VR for this purpose (35.3% of VR naïve, 59.7% of VR experienced [p < 0.001]), while 47.8% were unsure (51.1% of VR naïve, 28.2% of VR experienced [p < 0.001]). Most study participants (86.0%) reported willingness to use VR to manage their disease, regardless of prior experience. Even among those with no prior experience using VR, people with rheumatologic conditions report acceptance of VR to manage their condition. These findings support further exploration of the potential value of interventions that introduce VR to this patient population for use in learning about and managing their disease.