Forest therapy using virtual reality in the older population: a systematic review.

As life expectancy increases, more attention needs to be paid to their mental and physical condition. Many older patients are also bedridden, which makes some treatments, like Based on PRISMA guidelines, we conducted a literature search in three databases (EBSCO, PubMed, and Scopus), plus gray literature (OpenGrey). We considered only studies that used forest settings via virtual reality and included a sample with age ≥ 65. After the screening and eligibility stages, 7 articles have been included. The study underlines the need to implement research in this direction to standardize effective procedures that can be used to improve the mental and physical health of the older people and caregivers, while also reducing social costs.

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Copyright © 2024 Clemente, Romano, Zamboni, Carrus and Panno.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

The reviewer GS declared a past co-authorship with the author AP to the handling editor. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.