ArticleTrials2022
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.
Article in Trials, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04611399 (MIND-VR), which is not on this map. Cited by 13 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
MIND-VR: Virtual Reality for COVID-19 Operators' Psychological Support
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Digital technology integration in home-based exercise: a systematic review of research evolution, applications, and impact mechanisms.BMC public health · 2025Pooled it
- What are effective strategies to respond to the psychological impacts of working on the frontlines of a public health emergency?Frontiers in public health · 2023Pooled it
- Integrating Immersive Virtual Reality With Savoring to Promote the Well-Being of Patients With Chronic Respiratory Diseases: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Trial
- Preselected and preferred immersive virtual reality versus narrative alone to induce post-stress relaxation in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension: A pilot study on perceived stress and heart rate.British journal of health psychology · 2026Article
- Cyberdelics: Virtual reality hallucinations modulate cognitive-affective processes.Dialogues in clinical neuroscience · 2025Article
- Virtual reality as a tool to promote healthcare providers wellbeing in pediatric palliative care.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Effects and Acceptability of a 1-Week Home-Based Virtual Reality Training for Supporting the Management of Stress and Anxiety: Randomized Pilot Trial.JMIR serious games · 2025Article
- Virtual reality for stress management and burnout reduction in nursing: A systematic review protocol.PloS one · 2025Article
- Stress as a mediator between abusive supervision and clinical nurses' work outcomes.International nursing review · 2024Article
- Review
- A systematic review on the efficacy of virtual reality and gamification interventions for managing anxiety and depression.Frontiers in digital health · 2023Review
- Virtual Reality Applications in Medicine During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Systematic Review.JMIR serious games · 2022Review
- Immersive Therapy for Improving Anxiety in Health Professionals of a Regional Hospital during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Quasi-Experimental Pilot Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
20 authors at 7 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundHealthcare 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.
methodsThe 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 registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT04611399 .
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.