Music, Virtual Reality, and Mental Health

This study aimed to develop a new intervention for patients hospitalized in a geriatric short-stay unit, with the goal of improving their well-being and quality of life. The intervention consisted of an art-therapy–type activity based on music and virtual reality (VR). Specifically, we examined the feasibility and effects on mental health—that is, positive affect, well-being, quality of life, and anxiety—of a 15-minute immersive intervention, delivered once a day for two consecutive days. The intervention consisted of watching and listening, through a VR headset, to musicians performing classical music in a concert hall, among patients hospitalized in the Unité de réadaptation fonctionnelle intensive ( (URFI) of the Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal (IUGM).

The study design was a single-center, parallel-group randomized clinical trial comparing:
– an intervention group, in which participants watched and listened to a concert of musicians performing classical music through a VR headset;
– a control group, in which participants listened to the same concert using audio headphones only.

A total of 40 participants aged 60 years and older, hospitalized in the URFI at the IUGM, was recruited: 20 in the intervention group and 20 in the control group, over a six-month period.

The primary objective was to assess the feasibility of a 15-minute immersive intervention, delivered once a day for two consecutive days, consisting of watching and listening to classical musicians through a VR headset.

The secondary objective was to quantify and compare, between the intervention group (watching and listening to musicians with a VR headset) and the control group (listening to music with audio headphones), the changes in scale scores measuring emotions, well-being, quality of life, and anxiety.