Virtual reality in the treatment of asthma patients: Systematic review

Introduction: Virtual reality provides venues for the use of new methods to perform physical activity in pulmonary rehabilitation programs for asthmatic patients. Virtual reality (VR) here is understood as the practice of recreational activities, entertainment, and interactivity associated with standardized physical activity. Objective: The objective of this work is to evaluate the quality of the existent evidence in the literature in order to support the treatment of asthmatic patients through Virtual Reality on asthmatic children and teenager’s rehabilitation, compared with the standard treatment. Data sources and study selection: Search, selection and analysis (starting March 2016) of all the original articles on virtual reality concerning asthmatic children and adolescents (ages 3 to 18), published up to October 2017, in Portuguese, English and Spanish, at the electronic databases Pubmed, Web of Science, MedlLine and LILACS, obtained by using the descriptors: asthma, video game, virtual reality, pulmonary rehabilitation, physical training. Results: Only seven original articles were obtained. Of these, six (85%) presented level of evidence A, one (15%) presented level of evidence B and no article presented level of evidence C. All authors point out the treatment of asthma from VR as a safe and innovative therapy considering that the motivation and intensity of treatment from the use of VR improves the self-management capacity and aerobic capacity of asthmatic patients. Conclusion: The present study seeks to contribute to the literature by demonstrating that VR can be used to improve knowledge capacity and self-management skills in addition to physical fitness and clinical control in asthmatic children.