A research group led by Professor Kazue Sawami of Nara Medical University School of Medicine has found that a virtual travel experience that does not actually move to the site is effective in preventing dementia in the elderly.It was reported at the Japan Society of Mental Health Nursing held in Aichi Prefecture in a joint research with toraru, which provides virtual travel services, and Nasse, which operates welfare and long-term care facilities.
The survey was conducted twice a month from August to December 8, targeting approximately 190 elderly people who enter eight facilities, including Enmei-so, a low-cost nursing home in Minami-ku, Sakai City, and Care House Happiness-so in Kishiwada City, Osaka Prefecture. A virtual travel experience for 2018 months each.Among them, the cognitive function and psychological state of 8 people with an average age of 12 years, whose data before and after the survey can be compared, were investigated.
According to it, it was found that elderly people who had a virtual travel experience improved their cognitive function after the experience, such as an average score of 19.0 to 23.2 and a Chinese character code test of 34.9 to 37.3 in the immediate reproduction of the word memory test. rice field.In contrast, non-experienced elderly people did not see any significant changes.
Elderly people who experienced the psychological test had improved values such as satisfaction increased from 3.1 to 3.8 and achievement increased from 2.9 to 3.8.
The research group thinks that it was a good stimulus to be able to communicate with the local people by feeling like traveling even though they could not go out due to the virtual travel experience.
