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The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought particularly serious challenges to the health of elderly people, as the elderly are more likely to be infected by the virus (Zhou et al. 2020), and the mortality rate of COVID-19 among elderly patients is significantly higher than that of other age groups (Yanez et al. 2020). Unfortunately, scientists are inclined to believe that COVID-19 could become a long-standing disease that coexists with humans (Telenti et al. 2021). In the new normal of COVID-19, finding ways to help the elderly population overcome infection anxieties and lockdown has become an important issue for elderly individuals, care institutions, and society as a whole.
Extensive evidence has shown that forest therapy — a combination of activities (e.g., walking, guided activities) performed in real forest environments — can play an active role in improving people’s mental and physical wellbeing (e.g., Kim et al. 2015; Lee et al. 2011; Lyu et al. 2019; Rosa et al. 2021; Song et al. 2017; Yu and Hsieh 2020). However, the infection anxieties and lockdown measures due to COVID-19, along with other barriers (e.g., low income), prevent most elderly individuals from improving or returning to their pre-COVID-19 states through engagement in real forest therapy.
Some recent evidence suggests that VR forest environment experiences could be an effective alternative to real forest therapy for improving people’s health (e.g., Li et al. 2020; Mattila et al. 2020; Yu et al. 2018). VR forests are forest environments simulated via recent VR technology and devices (e.g., head-mounted displays with headphones) that can provide users with pleasant, vivid, and immersive forest experiences (Gammack and Hodkinson 2003; Mattila et al. 2020; Yu et al. 2018). It has been demonstrated that VR forest experiences can enhance stress recovery (Annerstedt et al. 2013; Li et al. 2020), increase the level of vigor and positive affect, and decrease negative emotions, systolic blood pressure and heart rate (Mattila et al. 2020; Yu et al. 2018).
Although some positive effects have been documented, research focused on the restorative effects of VR forest experiences is scarce given “the short history of the latest immersive VR technology” (Yu et al. 2018, p. 107). In particular, prior studies have neglected (a) to test whether the restorative effects of VR forest experiences are still significant among elderly individuals; (b) to discern the immediate and sustained effects of VR forest experiences on individuals’ restoration (Mattila et al. 2020); (c) to explore when the restorative effects of VR forest experiences are more obvious (Reese and Menzel 2021); and (d) to examine whether VR forest experiences can increase individuals’ intentions to undertake real forest therapy.
To fill these research gaps, in this study, a field experiment was conducted over 3 consecutive days to investigate the immediate and sustained restorative effects of VR forest experiences on elderly individuals. Specifically, this study aims to test (a) whether a short VR forest experience can bring immediate psychological (e.g., emotional improvements and stress recovery) and physiological (e.g., blood pressure) restoration to elderly individuals; (b) whether three VR forest experiences over 3 days can result in sustained psychological and physiological improvements for elderly individuals; (c) whether those restorative effects are based on individuals’ introverted versus extraverted personalities; and (d) whether VR forest experiences can elevate elderly individuals’ intentions to undertake real forest therapy.