Effects of Virtual Reality Dementia Education on College Students' Knowledge and Attitudes

Overview

Dementia is a growing public health concern, and improving knowledge and attitudes toward dementia is important for reducing stigma and promoting supportive care. Virtual reality (VR) has been increasingly used as an educational tool because it can provide immersive and engaging learning experiences. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of different types of virtual reality-based dementia education on college students' knowledge of dementia and their attitudes toward people living with dementia. College students were randomly assigned to one of two educational approaches: a VR-360 experience based on real-life scenarios or a computer-generated VR (CG-VR) learning environment. Participants completed questionnaires assessing dementia-related knowledge and attitudes before and after the educational intervention. By comparing changes between the two groups, this study aims to determine whether different VR formats lead to different learning outcomes. The findings of this study may help inform the design of future dementia education programs using immersive technologies.

This study adopted a two-group randomized pretest-posttest design to evaluate the effectiveness of different virtual reality-based dementia education approaches. Participants were recruited from a university in central Taiwan and were randomly assigned to either a VR-360 group or a computer-generated VR (CG-VR) group using computer-generated random codes. Both interventions were designed to introduce key concepts related to dementia, including common warning signs, prevention strategies, and communication considerations when interacting with people living with dementia. The VR-360 intervention used immersive real-life video scenarios, whereas the CG-VR intervention used a virtual learning environment with interactive instructional content. Dementia-related knowledge and attitudes were assessed using standardized questionnaires before and after the intervention. Changes in outcomes were compared between groups to evaluate the differential effects of the two VR formats. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Taichung Tzu Chi Hospital.