Requirements Analysis on Emotional Preferences for Leisure Activities in Virtual Reality for Female Nursing Home Residents – A Mixed Method Approach

Insufficient tailoring of individual needs of nursing home residents can lead to standardized (leisure) activities. Virtual Reality (VR) provides the potential to offer a multimodal experience of individualized activities to residents. The aim of the VR4Care study is to explore attitudes, knowledge, and expectations regarding the use of VR glasses for (leisure) activities in female residents living in rural nursing homes. A mixed method approach in two phases (phase 1: interviews with a complementary standardized questionnaire; phase 2: measurement of affective states) was used. In total, 20 participants were interviewed regarding nine categories. The results show that the most described VR-scenarios for (leisure) activities include arts and crafts (e.g., sewing and knitting), followed by gardening (e.g., farmhouse garden), washing and ironing clothes and dancing (e.g., Austrian folk dances). This study serves as an important basis for scenario development and for testing the use of biosensor measurements in phase 2.