Australian Occupational Therapy Journal最新文献

Introduction: Individuals with acquired brain injury (ABI) experience high rates of poor functional outcomes such as inability to complete activities of daily living (ADL). Occupational therapy needs to be customised to the individual's function, goals, and environment to facilitate improvement in ADLs after ABI. Virtual reality (VR) is a novel treatment approach that aims to improve skills within an individualised environment. This study aimed to review the current literature for the use of VR platforms that incorporate ADLs to improve functional outcomes after ABI.

Methods: This review followed the six-stage framework by Arksey & O'Malley (2005). Electronic databases were searched for peer-reviewed journal articles based on inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Results: One thousand and six hundred eighty articles were screened, including 413 full text articles and 13 articles were included for review. Among the 13 articles, six were RCTs and the rest were pre-post intervention studies. Studies largely used non-immersive VR platforms, which incorporated ADLs such as grocery shopping, aiming to improve functional outcomes.

Consumer and community consultation: Consumer and community were not involved in executing this study.

Conclusion: This review suggests mixed results if VR is effective at treating upper limb, cognition, and ADL function after ABI. Using their clinical reasoning, occupational therapists can determine the suitability of VR for ADL rehabilitation for specific patient populations and settings. Plain Language Summary Individuals who sustain an acquired brain injury can have difficulty performing their daily activities such as, making a meal or getting dressed, because of limited function (e.g., physical and cognitive problems). To help improve their ability to complete daily activities, occupational therapy needs to be customised to the individual's function, goals, and environment. Virtual reality is a new rehabilitation approach that allows individuals to improve their function in an individualised environment. In this study, we reviewed the current studies that have used virtual reality platforms that incorporate daily activities to improve function after acquired brain injury. We searched databases and screened the titles and abstracts of 1,680 studies. Then, 413 full-text studies were screened, and 13 studies were included. Studies mostly used non-immersive platforms to practise daily activities such as, grocery shopping, aiming to improve function after acquired brain injury. This review suggests mixed results if virtual reality can effectively treat function after acquired brain injury.

In health, the value of research evidence in informing practice, service decisions and funding is well established and an embedded part of everyday practice (e.g., Bennett & Bennett, 2000). However, there are concerns about the state of health research for these purposes. The timeframes for embedding robust research findings into practice are slow (often cited at 17 years) and even with focused efforts in implementation science, practice is often lagging behind research (Juckett et al., 2019). In addition, there can be gaps or quality concerns within published research about particular practice areas, populations and settings. More broadly, some areas of research are also noting a replicability crisis where earlier findings are unable to be replicated in subsequent studies, bringing the validity of original findings into question. The challenge of research waste, where expensive research may be unpublished, unread or unable to be used in practice is also challenging researchers to focus on and disseminate useful, prioritised, needed and high-quality research (Chalmers et al., 2014). These research challenges should raise concerns for occupational therapists, health services and consumers of health services, and has led to proposed changes in the way research needs to be conducted and applied (Korbmacher et al., 2023).

We believe an important tool to begin to address many of these concerns is inclusive research. We are a team of researchers who contribute to allied health research and have either or both living experience of disability/health conditions and health or technology qualifications. By inclusive research we mean research which is conducted in partnership with interest holders in the research, particularly living experience experts/consumers, families, communities, clinicians, managers and policy makers. In addition, we contend research should use inclusive ways of defining and engaging with participants to collect data. Finally, dissemination and implementation of findings should be planned for and enacted within the partnered research, ensuring the research is usable and used.

Partnering with interest holders, particularly those with living experience, has many benefits for the planning and conduct of research. These partnerships can allow for meaningful prioritisation of research areas, inclusive design and planning of projects and consideration of implementation requirements. It can allow for troubleshooting research challenges (e.g., recruitment, communication about the study, online approaches to engagement, outcome measurement and design of implementation strategies) (Liddle et al., 2022). It can also support research dissemination, ensuring that those people who will use, or should know about the research, can engage with the information in an accessible format (e.g., easy-read, audio and visual formats). Importantly, these partnersh