Comparison of Social Frailty and Oral Health Literacy Among Older Adults in Urban and Rural Areas: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Extended reality (XR) is increasingly used in health care as an (adjunct) intervention. XR is an umbrella term that encompasses virtual reality (VR), mixed reality, and augmented reality. VR can be defined as a “” and is usually provided through a head-mounted display (HMD). By using an HMD, the user generally is sensory immersed in the virtual environment. Therapeutic VR is used for a variety of conditions, including (chronic) pain, phobias, and stress. Recently, a cross-sectional study reviewed the quality of reporting XR interventions in health care publications and showed that current intervention reporting is very poor. This corresponds with a recent review on XR interventions in pain management research, which showed that only 23% of the examined scientific papers included a substantial content description of the VR intervention, and only 46% included a substantial hardware description. This lack of detail and completeness in VR intervention reporting can lead to, for example, inappropriate interpretation, as well as comparisons and pooling of heterogeneous interventions in reviews and meta-analyses. This is a potential factor that hinders the adoption of therapeutic VR in health care settings and the replication of VR effectiveness studies. Recent literature on the current state of clinical VR research described it as “,” with a lack of clear guidelines, standards, or substantial progress. Multiple sources suggest that the current state of VR scientific inquiry is underpinned by the absence of consensus on an intervention reporting guideline. This was mentioned as a limitation of recent VR research in different health care settings, including psychology, chronic pain, and physical rehabilitation research. Several intervention reporting guidelines of therapeutic interventions exist; the Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) checklist is one of the most commonly used in health care. This checklist includes items delineating why, how, and where the intervention was delivered. More specific intervention reporting guidelines were developed for exercise interventions such as the Consensus on Exercise Reporting Template, but not yet for therapeutic VR. Given the multiple specific technical, content, and user-interactive elements involved in VR applications, existing therapeutic reporting guidelines are limited in their ability to capture the essential components of therapeutic VR interventions.