Virtual Reality Aided Therapy towards Health 4.0: A Two-Decade Bibliometric Analysis

Zhen Liu, Lingfeng Ren, Chang Xiao, Ke Zhang and Peter Demian
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Zhen Liu: School of Design, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
Lingfeng Ren: School of Design, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
Chang Xiao: School of Design, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
Ke Zhang: School of Design, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
Peter Demian: School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, UK

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 3, 1-26

Abstract: Health 4.0 aligns with Industry 4.0 and encourages the application of the latest technologies to healthcare. Virtual reality (VR) is a potentially significant component of the Health 4.0 vision. Though VR in health care is a popular topic, there is little knowledge of VR-aided therapy from a macro perspective. Therefore, this paper was aimed to explore the research of VR in aiding therapy, thus providing a potential guideline for futures application of therapeutic VR in healthcare towards Health 4.0. A mixed research method was adopted for this research, which comprised the use of a bibliometric analysis (a quantitative method) to conduct a macro overview of VR-aided therapy, the identification of significant research structures and topics, and a qualitative review of the literature to reveal deeper insights. Four major research areas of VR-aided therapy were identified and investigated, i.e., post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety and fear related disorder (A&F), diseases of the nervous system (DNS), and pain management, including related medical conditions, therapies, methods, and outcomes. This study is the first to use VOSviewer, a commonly used software tool for constructing and visualizing bibliometric networks and developed by Center for Science and Technology Studies, Leiden University, the Netherlands, to conduct bibliometric analyses on VR-aided therapy from the perspective of Web of Science core collection (WoSc), which objectively and visually shows research structures and topics, therefore offering instructive insights for health care stakeholders (particularly researchers and service providers) such as including integrating more innovative therapies, emphasizing psychological benefits, using game elements, and introducing design research. The results of this paper facilitate with achieving the vision of Health 4.0 and illustrating a two-decade (2000 to year 2020) map of pre-life of the Health Metaverse.

Keywords: health care; virtual reality; therapy; VOSviewer; bibliometric; post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); anxiety and fear related disorder (A&F); diseases of the nervous system (DNS); pain management; Health 4.0; Health Metaverse (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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