Virtual reality applications to assist pregnant women: a scoping review

BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth

Fatemeh Sarpourian¹  Sadrieh Hajesmaeel-Gohari²  Elaheh Shafiei² 

[1] Department of Health Information Management, School of Management and Information Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran;Medical Informatics Research Center, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran;

关键词: Virtual reality;    Pregnancy;    Delivery;    Labor;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12884-021-03725-5

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundVirtual reality (VR) is a computer technology that simulates the real world to allow users to communicate with a similar but artificial environment. VR technologies can be used in pregnancy to help mothers gain a better understanding of this significant yet stressful event. The aim of this study was to find and summarize VR applications to help pregnant women during their pregnancy and delivery.MethodsPubMed, Embase, and Web of Science databases were searched on November 11th, 2020 to access relevant studies. The following data were extracted from the collected studies: first author’s name, year of publication, country, type of study, sample size, study objective, VR components (hardware and software), data gathering method, and study outcomes. Through a descriptive summary and analysis, the results eventually presented.ResultsNine studies were included in this study. Four studies (44.5%) had used VR technology to reduce the anxiety of pregnant women, four studies (44.5%) had applied VR for decreasing delivery pain, and one study (11%) used VR for exercise trainings. Five studies (56%) used VR headsets and three studies (33.5%) used VR glasses. Most studies showed that VR was a useful method to be used for different purposes in both pregnancy and delivery (n = 8, 89%).ConclusionThe use of VR technology for pregnancy has been increasing in recent years. This technology has different applications in pregnancy, from reducing anxiety and pain to exercise training. However, more studies are required to reach a general common understanding about the efficacy of VR during pregnancy and delivery.

【 授权许可】

CC BY