Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Application of Virtual Reality in Hearing Disorders
Journal of Audiology & Otology
Kwak, C., Han, W., et al. (2022).
Journal of Audiology & Otology, 26(4), 169-181.
This systematic review and meta-analysis investigates the effect of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) on outcomes for individuals with vestibular disease, tinnitus, or who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea; National Research Foundation of Korea
January 1968 to February 2022
Randomized-controlled trials, non-randomized controlled trials, cohort studies with a control comparison, and repeated measures (pre- and post- comparisons)
23 studies included in the systematic review; 12 in the meta-analysis
Only one study investigated the impact of virtual reality (VR) on hearing loss. Results demonstrated that for children with sensorineural hearing loss with bilateral vestibular loss, VR is useful for providing information on hearing compensation that occurs when using cochlear implants.
Only two studies reported on the impact of virtual reality (VR) in managing tinnitus. One showed that tinnitus avatar synthesis could be applied to individuals with tinnitus to improve outcomes on questionnaires. The other showed no significant difference at various time points between VR and conventional therapy; although, many measures did show improvement from baseline.
Results of the meta-analysis showed that various outcomes measures were not statistically significant. The discrepancy among studies reporting on the effect of virtual reality (VR) based vestibular rehabilitation may have been accounted for by the effects of aging on sensory integration. The implementation of VR techniques improved subjective rating measures for those with vestibular dysfunction.
