TY - JOUR
T1 - A pilot study of virtual support for grief
T2 - Feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary outcomes
AU - Knowles, Lindsey M.
AU - Stelzer, Eva Maria
AU - Jovel, Krystal S.
AU - O'Connor, Mary Frances
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by grant #2013-234 from the Retirement Research Foundation. We thank Caroline L. O'Connor for her contributions, without which this project would not have been possible.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2017/8/1
Y1 - 2017/8/1
N2 - Social support and grief education can ameliorate mental and physical health risks in widow(er)s. However, barriers often prevent older individuals from attending support groups. This controlled pilot study examined the feasibility and acceptability of an online, real-time, interactive virtual reality (VR) support group for widow(er)s, and assessed the preliminary efficacy of the VR support group for improving psychosocial outcomes and sleep quality compared to an active control grief education website. Thirty widow(er)s (Mage = 67.0, SD = 11.0) participated in an 8-week VR support group or accessed a grief education website. Participants completed self-report measures of depression, grief intensity, grief cognitions, yearning, loneliness, perceived stress and sleep quality at three time points. Participant attrition and self-report indicated that both interventions were feasible and acceptable. Both groups showed significant improvements in grief severity, grief cognitions, yearning, loneliness, perceived stress, and global sleep quality across study time points. However, only widow(er)s in the VR support group showed a significant improvement in depression across time. This study demonstrates the feasibility, acceptability and preliminary efficacy of an accessible and low-cost online support format for widow(er)s.
AB - Social support and grief education can ameliorate mental and physical health risks in widow(er)s. However, barriers often prevent older individuals from attending support groups. This controlled pilot study examined the feasibility and acceptability of an online, real-time, interactive virtual reality (VR) support group for widow(er)s, and assessed the preliminary efficacy of the VR support group for improving psychosocial outcomes and sleep quality compared to an active control grief education website. Thirty widow(er)s (Mage = 67.0, SD = 11.0) participated in an 8-week VR support group or accessed a grief education website. Participants completed self-report measures of depression, grief intensity, grief cognitions, yearning, loneliness, perceived stress and sleep quality at three time points. Participant attrition and self-report indicated that both interventions were feasible and acceptable. Both groups showed significant improvements in grief severity, grief cognitions, yearning, loneliness, perceived stress, and global sleep quality across study time points. However, only widow(er)s in the VR support group showed a significant improvement in depression across time. This study demonstrates the feasibility, acceptability and preliminary efficacy of an accessible and low-cost online support format for widow(er)s.
KW - Avatar
KW - Grief
KW - Spousal loss
KW - Support group
KW - Virtual world
KW - Web-based
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U2 - 10.1016/j.chb.2017.04.005
DO - 10.1016/j.chb.2017.04.005
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85018735634
SN - 0747-5632
VL - 73
SP - 650
EP - 658
JO - Computers in Human Behavior
JF - Computers in Human Behavior
ER -