Virtual Reality for Informal Caregivers of Heart Failure Patients: A Mixed Method Research Proposal

Informal Caregivers (CG) for heart failure patients are very important for preserving health status, preventing symptoms exacerbation and improving self-care. However, being a caregiver can be very burdensome, emotionally stressful and, often, associated with social interaction problems. Despite this, literature lacks in interventions aimed to reduce burden and improve wellbeing. The aim of this project is to reduce burden, improve mutuality and increase resilience with the use of immersive virtual reality. A concurrent mixed method design will be used to test the intervention with two experiments on volunteer CG. Open-ended questions will be used, meanwhile, to explore the impact of the experience. Caregiver Burden Inventory (CBI), Mutuality Scale (MS) and Connor Davidson Resilience Scale (CDRISC-25) will be administered both pre and post experiments. On psychophysiological indexes, an analysis of variance will be performed (ANOVA). Data about burden, mutuality and resilience will be presented through data integration with the content analysis of the open-ended questions in a joint display.