ABSTRACT

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of intervention using immersive and non-immersive virtual reality devices on the improvement of the upper limb function in 3 participants with chronic stroke. Methods: The design used a combination of an AB design and an alternating design to compare the effects of both intervention types based on a single-subject research design. The dependent variables were the upper limb functions, and BBT and FMA were applied as the evaluation tools. The study consisted of 20 sessions given during a total of 7 weeks including four sessions of a baseline period and 16 sessions of an intervention period. Results: As the results indicate, it was first confirmed that virtual reality intervention had a positive effect on improvements of the upper limb function of chronic stroke patients. All dependent variables measured during the intervention period exceeded the 2SD interval of the measured value during the baseline period. Second, there was no significant difference between non-immersive virtual reality intervention and immersive virtual reality intervention. Conclusion: The results of this study show that intervention using immersive and non-immersive virtual reality can have a positive effect on improvements of upper limb function of chronic stroke subjects.