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(Stroke. 2006;37:2770.)
© 2006 American Heart Association, Inc.

Original Contributions

Validity of a Virtual Environment for Stroke Rehabilitation

Judi A. Edmans, DipCOT, MPhil, PhD; John R.F. Gladman, BSc, MBChB, DM, FRCP; Sue Cobb, BSc, MSc, PhD; Alan Sunderland, BSc Hons, MPhil, PhD; Tony Pridmore, BSc, PhD; Dave Hilton, BSc Hons, Cert Ed, MSc Marion F. Walker, DipCOT, MPhil, PhD

From Division of Rehabilitation & Ageing (J.A.E., J.R.F.G., M.F.W.), VIRART (S.C., D.H.), School of Psychology (A.S.), School of Computer Science (T.P.), University of Nottingham, UK.

Correspondence to Dr Judi Edmans, Division of Rehabilitation and Ageing, B Floor, Medical School, Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham NG7 2UH. E-mail judi.edmans{at}nottingham.ac.uk

Background and Purpose— Virtual environments for use in stroke rehabilitation are in development, but there has been little evaluation of their suitability for this purpose. We evaluated a virtual environment developed for the rehabilitation of the task of making a hot drink.

Methods— Fifty stroke patients undergoing rehabilitation in a UK hospital stroke unit were involved. The performance of stroke rehabilitation patients when making a hot drink had the neurological impairments associated with performance of this task, and the errors observed were compared for standardized task performance in the real world and in a virtual environment. Neurological impairments were measured using standardized assessments. Errors in task performance were assessed rating video recordings and classified into error types.

Results— Real-world and virtual environment performance scores were not strongly associated (=0.30; P<0.05). Performance scores in both settings were associated with age, Barthel ADL score, Mini Mental State Examination score, and tests of visuospatial function. Real-world performance only was associated with arm function and sequencing ability. Virtual environment performance only was associated with language function and praxis. Participants made different errors during task performance in the real world and in the virtual environment.

Conclusions— Although this virtual environment was usable by stroke rehabilitation patients, it posed a different rehabilitation challenge from the task it was intended to simulate, and so it might not be as effective as intended as a rehabilitation tool. Other virtual environments for stroke rehabilitation in development require similar evaluation.

Key Words: cerebrovascular disease • rehabilitation • virtual reality