Journal of Aging Science

Using Virtual Reality to Improve the Qualtiy of Life of Older adults with Cognitive Impairments in Senior Living Communities wtih Adult Children who Live at a Distance

Webinar on Global Summit on Geriatrics & Aging

December 02, 2021 | Webinar

Tamara D. Afifi

Department of Communication, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Aging Sci

Abstract:

residents’ feelings of social isolation and poor mental health, enabling and enhancing social connections with family despite geographical separation. Shared VR experiences could improve the quality of life for the older adult and the adult child, as well as reduce the adult child’s caregiver guilt. In this talk, I will present findings from our National Institute on Aging (NIA) Phase I project where our research team tested the feasibility of the VR platform, Rendever, with older adults with mild cognitive impairments (MCI) or mild to moderate dementia and their family members who lived at a distance. This VR technology is innovative in that it has advanced communication and networking features that enable multiple people to travel back to familiar locations in VR, co-view photos and videos, and engage in novel activities together, all while sharing stories in the process, even if they live in different parts of the world. The results showed the VR technology to be safe and easy to use. Older adults, regardless of their level of cognitive impairment, and their family members reported extremely high user satisfaction, enjoyment, and immersion. We also found that this VR technology can improve quality of life and mental health indices of the older adult and the family member, as well as reduce the family member’s caregiver guilt compared to baseline. Finally, I will discuss our new NIA Phase II randomized clinical trial where we are examining the long-term effects of the VR in an experimental design with approximately 200 older adults with MCI or mild to moderate dementia in 12 senior living communities in Central California and Boston and their adult children who live at a distance.

Biography :

Tamara Afifi is a Professor and Chair in the Department of Communication at the University of California-Santa Barbara. She has published 150 articles and chapters on family and interpersonal communication in two domains: (1) how people communicate when they are stressed and its impact on personal and relational health, and (2) information regulation (e.g., avoidance, privacy, secrets, stress contagion effects). She is a Fellow of the International Communication Association (ICA) and a Distinguished Scholar of the National Communication Association (NCA). Professor Afifi has secured external funding through agencies like the National Institutes of Health (NICHD and NIA).