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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pain Res.
Sec. Non-Pharmacological Treatment of Pain
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpain.2025.1535915
This article is part of the Research Topic Patient Education in the Treatment of Chronic Pain View all 4 articles
The acceptability, feasibility, and usability of a virtual reality pain education and rehabilitation program for Veterans: a mixed-methods study
Provisionally accepted
Amelia K Mardon 1,2*
Dianne Wilson 2 Hayley B Leake 2 Daniel Harvie 2 Andre Andrade 3
Jane Chalmers 2
Aaron Bowes 4
Lorimer Moseley 2- 1 NICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Westmead, Australia
- 2 IIMPACT in Health, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
- 3 Quality Use of Medicine Research Centre, The University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
- 4 IPAR Rehabilitation, Melbourne, Australia
Introduction: Persistent pain is a leading cause of medical discharges for Veterans. Pain science education (PSE) aims to better people’s understanding about pain and is effective at reducing pain and depressive symptoms in Veterans. Preliminary evidence suggests virtual reality (VR)-delivered PSE has clinical benefits for people with persistent pain. This study investigated the acceptability, feasibility, and usability for VR-PSE for Veterans with persistent pain. Methods: Veterans (n=7) and healthcare professionals (HCPs) experienced in treating Veterans (n=5) participated in workshops that involved working through the VR-PSE program, online questionnaires, and a focus group. Quantitative data were analysed by descriptive statistics. Qualitative data were analysed using a framework analysis according to the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability (TFA). A mixed-methods analysis combined the quantitative and qualitative data via triangulation, with the findings presented according to the TFA domains. Results: The VR-PSE program was considered easy to use, engaging, and adaptable for different functional capabilities. Appropriate screening for contraindications prior to using the VR-PSE program was considered important by HCPs. Both Veterans and HCPs emphasized the need for a trusting client-clinician relationship to improve the acceptability of the VR-PSE program. Discussion: Overall, the VR-PSE program was found to be acceptable, feasible, and usable and may be a useful tool to incorporate into the clinical management of Veterans with persistent pain. Further research is needed to investigate the efficacy of VR-PSE programs on clinical outcomes for Veterans with persistent pain.
Keywords: Chronic Pain, Veterans, virtual reality, Pain education, pain science education, Acceptability, mixed methods
Received: 28 Nov 2024; Accepted: 06 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Mardon, Wilson, Leake, Harvie, Andrade, Chalmers, Bowes and Moseley. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Amelia K Mardon, NICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Westmead, Australia
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.