Can virtual reality have effects on cardiac rehabilitation? An overview of systematic reviews

Objective: This paper aims to provide a review of the use of virtual reality in cardiac rehabilitation.

Background: Can virtual reality technology improve outcomes in patients with cardiovascular disease? The question is still open.

Design: Systematic review and meta-analyses.

Methods: A literature search was conducted in the Embase, the Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database, Wanfang Database, and China Biological Medicine Database. Databases were searched to July 2023. The inclusion criteria were as follows: the nature of the studies was set as a systematic review; the research participants were patients with cardiovascular diseases undergoing cardiac rehabilitation; the research content was a comparison of virtual reality effects between other care approaches. A Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews was employed to evaluate the quality of included studies and judge the overall certainty of evidence by using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation methodology. When there were differences between the outcomes, we used the RevMan 5.3 to recalculate.

Results: A total of 7 reviews were included in our synthesis, including 3 low-quality articles and 4 very low-quality articles. Virtual reality was effective in improving patients' depression symptoms, anxiety, stress, and improving athletic ability, but it remains unknown whether virtual reality is effective for other outcomes or not.

Conclusions: Virtual reality can effectively improve the mental health of patients with cardiovascular disease. However, its role in improving other health indicators such as adherence, satisfaction, and quality of life has not been shown.