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Pallavicini F, Orena E, di Santo S, Greci L, Caragnano C, Ranieri P, Vuolato C, Pepe A, Veronese G, Stefanini S, Achille F, Dakanalis A, Bernardelli L, Sforza F, Rossini A, Caltagirone C, Fascendini S, Clerici M, Riva G, Mantovani F. A virtual reality home-based training for the management of stress and anxiety among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials 2022; 23:451. [PMID: 35655231 PMCID: PMC9161181 DOI: 10.1186/s13063-022-06337-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2021] [Accepted: 04/23/2022] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Healthcare workers represent one of the most affected categories by the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health. Excessive stress and anxiety are critical factors that could compromise work performance. Besides, high levels of stress and anxiety may have long-term physical and psychological consequences. Recent studies investigated virtual reality to reduce stress and anxiety among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the proposed virtual reality interventions have important limitations related to their location (i.e., research lab and hospitals) and content (i.e., virtual experiences only for relaxation). Within this context, this randomized controlled trial aims to investigate the efficacy and acceptability of a brief home-based virtual reality training for managing stress and anxiety during the COVID-19 crisis in a sample of Italian healthcare workers. Methods The study is a randomized controlled trial. It includes two groups of 30 individuals recruited from healthcare workers: (1) the experimental group and (2) the control group. Participants in the experimental group will receive a training consisting of three home sessions performed in a week. In each session, participants will try through an immersive virtual reality standalone system (i.e., Oculus Quest 2) a virtual psychoeducation experience on stress and anxiety (i.e., MIND-VR). Subsequently, they will try the virtual relaxation content (i.e., The Secret Garden). The control group will receive no training and will be reassessed one week and one month after the initial evaluation. Discussion If the proposed brief home-based virtual reality training will result helpful and easy to use, it could become an empirically assessed viable option for protecting healthcare workers’ mental health both during the COVID-19 pandemic and once it will be over. Furthermore, the intervention might be easily adapted for other categories of people who need support in managing stress and anxiety. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04611399.
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Affiliation(s)
- Federica Pallavicini
- Department of Human Sciences for Education, University of Milano Bicocca, Riccardo Massa", Milan, Italy.
| | - Eleonora Orena
- Foundation IRCCS, Neurological Institute Carlo Besta, Milan, Italy
| | - Simona di Santo
- IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy.,Università Degli Studi Di Roma Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Luca Greci
- Institute of Intelligent Industrial Technologies and Systems for Advanced Manufacturing (STIIMA), National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Lecco, Italy
| | - Chiara Caragnano
- University of Milano Bicocca, Department of Psychology, Milan, Italy
| | - Paolo Ranieri
- University of Milano-Bicocca, Specialization School in Psychology, Lecco, Italy
| | - Costanza Vuolato
- Foundation IRCCS, Neurological Institute Carlo Besta, Milan, Italy
| | - Alessandro Pepe
- Department of Human Sciences for Education, University of Milano Bicocca, Riccardo Massa", Milan, Italy
| | - Guido Veronese
- Department of Human Sciences for Education, University of Milano Bicocca, Riccardo Massa", Milan, Italy
| | | | | | - Antonios Dakanalis
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano Bicocca, Monza, Italy
| | | | | | | | | | - Sara Fascendini
- Fondazione Europea Ricerca Biomedica (FERB), Gazzaniga, Italy
| | - Massimo Clerici
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano Bicocca, Monza, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Riva
- Humane Technology Lab, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy.,Applied Technology for Neuro-Psychology Lab, Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milan, Italy
| | - Fabrizia Mantovani
- Department of Human Sciences for Education, University of Milano Bicocca, Riccardo Massa", Milan, Italy
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