Clinical trial NCT06629844: Enhancing Healthcare Students' Attitudes Toward Dementia Care Through Virtual Reality Education
Official title: Education Program for Enhancing Attitude Toward People Living with Dementia Among Healthcare Students Using Virtual Reality: Pilot Study
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Nursing Students
Education Program on Dementia
Keywords: Aged
Dementia
Education Program
Healthcare Student
Long-term care
Virtual Reality
Lead sponsor: Universitas Airlangga
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Tokyo University
First posted: 2024-10-08
Enrollment: 200
Sex: ALL
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: This quasi-experimental study focuses on Indonesian nursing students and aims to examine the effectiveness of virtual reality (VR) dementia educational programs. The study addresses the following research questions:

1. What is the current state of knowledge and awareness about dementia among participants before engaging in a VR dementia education program?
2. What is the effect of a VR dementia education program on improving participants' attitude, knowledge, and intention to help toward people living with dementia, and how are participants satisfied with the VR dementia education program? Participants will voluntarily join a 120-minute class education program, with each participant attending only once. The program, integrated into the faculty's dementia-related courses, will be structured around a series of components, including introduction, pre-program questionnaire, lecture, bad drama (unfriendly communication), bad version of VR, discussion, Lecture (about dementia), good VR, good drama, Lecture, N-impro, post-program questionnaire, and conclusion.

The VR education program will be included in dementia-related courses in the faculty of nursing.

Detailed description: This quasi-experimental study aims to evaluate a virtual reality (VR) dementia education program among nursing students in Indonesia. The participants will be nursing students who are enrolled in specific semesters and courses designated for the implementation of this educational program. At Universitas Airlangga, the study will be conducted with students in the fifth semester (third year). All prospective participants will be assigned new ID numbers to ensure the confidentiality of their student ID numbers. This protocol has been reviewed and approved by the Faculty of Nursing's Ethics Committee at Universitas Airlangga.

The VR dementia education program will be integrated into the Psychiatric Nursing class, which covers themes related to dementia care. Participants will be recruited during the Psychiatric Nursing course through class announcements. An overview of the research process will be provided, and detailed instructions regarding the study will be given shortly before it begins. The research team will announce the study approximately one week in advance, and recruitment will occur via Google Forms. Selected participants will receive their new ID numbers and details about the program's schedule and location through a class announcement three days before the intervention.

On the day of the intervention, participants will attend the designated location and sign an attendance sheet using their new IDs. The Principal Investigator (PI) will explain the study's stages and emphasize that participants can withdraw at any time without any consequences. Participation in the study will be entirely voluntary, and there will be no coercion. Students who opt out of the study will still receive standard dementia-related material through the university's e-learning platform. Still, they will not participate in the game-based education program. Students who agree to participate in the study will provide informed consent. Those in the program will complete a questionnaire before and after the intervention.

Regarding recruitment, eligible participants will be identified through the university's e-learning portal. Students registered in the selected courses for the 2024/2025 academic year will be noted at the beginning of the semester. All eligible students will receive comprehensive information about the study and an invitation to participate.

The research team will explain the program in person and provide written explanations at the start of the Psychiatric Nursing course. The 2024/2025 Psychiatric Nursing course consists of four classes, each with 50-60 students. One class will be randomly selected to participate in this pilot study as the intervention group. The remaining three classes will serve as the control group, receiving standard course material through the e-learning platform. Both the intervention and control groups will complete pre- and post-intervention questionnaires. Data will be collected again from both groups at the end of the Psychiatric Nursing course (expected in January 2025) to measure the long-term effects.

The intervention group will receive the VR dementia education program, while the control group will attend a standard lecture. Both interventions will be conducted once. The control group will receive a single lecture via the e-learning platform. Students who provide informed consent will be asked to complete the baseline survey (T1). In the intervention group, students will attend a classroom lecture and discussion on dementia (1st class) and then complete a post-lecture survey (T2). Later, they will be asked to complete another post-lecture survey (T3) at the end of the semester. The control group will follow the same timeline for completing the surveys (T1-T3).

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

- Nursing students enrolled in the designated semester and courses that align with the program's implementation at Universitas Airlangga.

Exclusion Criteria:

- Students who are not enrolled in the specified semester and courses or those who have prior experience with similar VR dementia education programs could influence the results.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Attitudes Toward People with Dementia Scale
timeFrame: 3-5 minutes for completion of the questionnaire
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Knowledge of Dementia
timeFrame: 3-5 minutes for completion of the questionnaire
measure: Intention to Help Persons Living with Dementia (PLWD)
timeFrame: 2-3 minutes for completion of the vignettes
measure: User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ)
timeFrame: 3-5 minutes for completion of the questionnaire
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Surabaya
country: Indonesia
facility: Faculty of Nursing, Universitas Airlangga
state: Jawa Timur
Study officials:
affiliation: Faculty of Nursing, Universitas Airlangga
name: Dianis Wulan Sari, Ph.D
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Sari DW, Igarashi A, Takaoka M, Yamahana R, Noguchi-Watanabe M, Teramoto C, Yamamoto-Mitani N. Virtual reality program to develop dementia-friendly communities in Japan. Australas J Ageing. 2020 Sep;39(3):e352-e359. doi: 10.1111/ajag.12797. Epub 2020 Jun 2.
citation: Wu J, Igarashi A, Suzuki H, Matsumoto H, Kugai H, Takaoka M, Yamamoto-Mitani N. Effects of a dementia educational programme using virtual reality on nurses in an acute care hospital: A pre-post comparative study. Int J Older People Nurs. 2024 May;19(3):e12616. doi: 10.1111/opn.12616.
citation: Suzuki H, Igarashi A, Matsumoto H, Kugai H, Takaoka M, Sakka M, Ito K, Hagiwara Y, Yamamoto-Mitani N. A Dementia-Friendly Educational Program Using Virtual Reality for the General Public in Japan: A Randomized Controlled Trial for DRIVE. Gerontologist. 2024 Nov 1;64(11):gnae113. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnae113.
citation: Igarashi A, Matsumoto H, Takaoka M, Kugai H, Suzuki M, Yamamoto-Mitani N. Educational Program for Promoting Collaboration Between Community Care Professionals and Convenience Stores. J Appl Gerontol. 2020 Jul;39(7):760-769. doi: 10.1177/0733464819871878. Epub 2019 Sep 3.
citation: Matsumoto H, Hagiwara Y, Yamamoto-Mitani N, Igarashi A. A Randomized Control Trial for ReDeSign: A Dementia-Friendly Mobile Microlearning Training for Store Workers in Japan. Gerontologist. 2023 Sep 2;63(8):1300-1310. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnac182.
citation: GBD 2021 Demographics Collaborators. Global age-sex-specific mortality, life expectancy, and population estimates in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1950-2021, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: a comprehensive demographic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021. Lancet. 2024 May 18;403(10440):1989-2056. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(24)00476-8. Epub 2024 Mar 11.
citation: Leroi I, Kitagawa K, Vatter S, Sugihara T. Dementia in 'super-aged' Japan: challenges and solutions. Neurodegener Dis Manag. 2018 Aug;8(4):257-266. doi: 10.2217/nmt-2018-0007. Epub 2018 Jul 24.
citation: Igarashi A, Eltaybani S, Takaoka M, Noguchi-Watanabe M, Yamamoto-Mitani N. Quality Assurance in Long-Term Care and Development of Quality Indicators in Japan. Gerontol Geriatr Med. 2020 Nov 27;6:2333721420975320. doi: 10.1177/2333721420975320. eCollection 2020 Jan-Dec.
citation: Matsumoto H, Igarashi A, Suzuki M, Yamamoto-Mitani N. Association between neighbourhood convenience stores and independent living in older people in Japan. Australas J Ageing. 2019 Jun;38(2):116-123. doi: 10.1111/ajag.12607. Epub 2019 Jan 30.