Home-Based Stroke Rehabilitation: Virtual Reality for the Elderly?

Stroke remains the leading cause of long-term disability, especially within the elderly population. Nearly 50 percent of stroke survivors never achieve full independence post-stroke. This literature review examines the capability of virtual reality (VR), as home-based continuation of stroke rehabilitation for elderly patients. VR has the potential to improve motor recovery, increase independence, and reduce healthcare costs for stroke survivors. A comprehensive literature review has been conducted following the PRISMA guidelines to evaluate VR therapy compared to conventional post-stroke therapy. VR rehabilitation demonstrated improvements in motor ability, however it did not demonstrate significantly superior improvements when compared to conventional therapy. Prolonged therapy post-stroke would lead to greater functional recovery and reduced disability. VR offers potential cost advantages compared to conventional therapy, which may be further reduced with telehealth and do it yourself programs. Given these comparable outcomes and potential benefits, home-based VR represents a promising, cost-effective continuation of hospital-based stroke therapy. Implementation of home-based VR could markedly reduce the burden of stroke by decreasing long-term disability, as well as healthcare costs. Future research should focus on refining the VR protocols to yield the highest motor recovery, while increasing accessibility through tablet-compatible programs in order to reach more stroke survivors.