Virtual Environments for Cognitive and Physical Training in Elderly with Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Pilot Study

This work aims at providing an evaluation of the acceptability and the usability of a virtual reality-based intervention developed for the physical and cognitive training of mild cognitive impaired elderlies. To perform this evaluation, participants enrolled in the intervention group (n = 4) of a randomized controlled trial to test the system were interviewed, and their adherence and their performances in the virtual environments for cognitive training were evaluated. In spite of the small sample, the active participation and the unanimous positive judgement of all the participants led to the conclusion that the training program was well accepted and enjoyable. Participants also claimed reduced level of anxiety in their ADL. On the basis of these encouraging results, a second trial, with enlarged sample and with a system implementing the improvements required to overcome the limitations and the problems highlighted with this pilot study, will be performed in the next future.