Context: Chronic low back pain is a
major cause of disability in the world. As
most cases have no pathological cause,
methods have traditionally been focused
on graded exposure therapy and exercise.
These methods however, are costly in
terms of manpower, have unclear time
spans, and are often associated with high
patient attrition.
Objectives: With the advent of
affordable high performance virtual reality
system, we investigate the feasibility and
acceptability of a virtual reality game for
treatment of chronic low back pain.
Methods: We used graded activity,
biofeedback, and gamification principles to
create a virtual reality dodgeball game
where patients have to pick up balls and
hit enemies. We create a full body tracking
solution such that we can tailor the game
to the individual patients range of motion.
The game is further created with feedback
from an expert in pain rehabilitation.
Results: The game is tested with
experts, patients, and a healthy sample.
The experts were interviewed on feasibility
and usability, patients on acceptability, and
healthy participants on general usability.
The findings showed that the game in a
clinic setting was very feasible, and
patients were high encouraged by the
game, and moving more than baseline.
Conclusion: We found that the game
could be used in a clinic setting, and
patients are very willing to play as well as
finding it fun, while not increasing or
decreasing back pain, and provides
suggestions for future improvements.