Barriers and Facilitators to the Implementation of Virtual Reality Interventions for People With Chronic Pain: Scoping Review

Abstract

Background Chronic pain is a growing health problem worldwide with a significant impact on individuals and societies. In regard to treatment, there is a gap between guideline recommendations and common practice in health care, especially concerning cognitive and psychological interventions. Virtual reality (VR) may provide a way to improve this situation. A growing body of evidence indicates that VR therapy has positive effects on pain and physical function. However, there is limited knowledge about barriers and facilitators to the implementation of VR interventions for people with chronic pain in health care settings. Objective The aim of this study was to identify and analyze the barriers and facilitators involved in implementing VR interventions for people with chronic pain. Methods We conducted a scoping review of the German and English literature using the MEDLINE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CINAHL, PEDro, LILACS, and Web of Science (inception to November 2023) databases, including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods studies reporting barriers and facilitators to the implementation of VR interventions for people with chronic pain, as reported by patients or health care professionals. Two reviewers systematically screened the abstracts and full texts of retrieved articles according to the inclusion criteria. All mentioned barriers and facilitators were extracted and categorized according to the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF). Results The database search resulted in 1864 records after removal of duplicates. From the 14 included studies, 30 barriers and 33 facilitators from the patient perspective and 2 facilitators from the health care professional perspective were extracted. Barriers reported by people with chronic pain were most frequently assigned to the TDF domains environmental context (60%) and skills (16.7%). Most facilitators were found in three domains for both the patients and health care professionals: beliefs about consequences (30.3%), emotions (18.2%), and environmental context (18.2%). Conclusions The findings of this review can inform the development of strategies for future implementations of VR interventions for people with chronic pain. Additionally, further research should address knowledge gaps about the perspective of health care professionals regarding the implementation of VR interventions for people with chronic pain.