Virtual Reality Exercise Program Effects on Body Mass Index, Depression, Exercise Fun and Exercise Immersion in Overweight Middle-Aged Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Eun-Young Seo, Yeon-Suk Kim, Yu-Jin Lee and Myung-Haeng Hur ()
Additional contact information
Eun-Young Seo: Department of Nursing, Gyeongbuk College of Health, Gimcheon 39525, Republic of Korea
Yeon-Suk Kim: Department of Nursing, Chung Cheong University, Cheongju 28171, Republic of Korea
Yu-Jin Lee: College of Nursing, Eulji University, Uijeongbu 11759, Republic of Korea
Myung-Haeng Hur: College of Nursing, Eulji University, Uijeongbu 11759, Republic of Korea

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 2, 1-13

Abstract: Background: This study explored the effects of a virtual reality exercise program on overweight middle-aged women. Methods: This randomized controlled trial included women 40–65 years of age with a body mass index (BMI) of 23 kg/m 2 or more living in Daejeon City. The virtual reality environment was set up by attaching an IoT sensor to an indoor bicycle and linking it with a smartphone, enabling exercise in an immersive virtual reality through a head-mounted display. Results: In the virtual reality exercise group, the BMI was significantly decreased after the 8-week intervention compared with the baseline value (F = 59.491, p < 0.001). The depression scores were significantly different among the three groups, with the intervention effect being more significant in the virtual reality exercise group than in the indoor bicycle exercise and control groups (F = 3.462, p < 0.001). Furthermore, the levels of exercise fun (F = 12.373, p < 0.001) and exercise immersion (F = 14.629, p < 0.001) were significantly higher in the virtual reality exercise group than in the indoor bicycle exercise and control groups. Conclusions: The virtual reality exercise program positively affected the BMI and the levels of depression, exercise fun, and exercise immersion in overweight middle-aged women. It is an effective home exercise program for obesity management in this population.

Keywords: virtual reality; exercise; overweight; body mass index; depression; immersion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/2/900/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/2/900/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:2:p:900-:d:1024472

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().