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Care of the Older Person
Falls
Frailty
Mental health and wellbeing
Rehabilitation
Technology

Virtual reality, the COVID-19 pandemic and rehabilitation for community-dwelling older adults

02 April 2021
Care of the Older Person
02 April 2021
Volume 26 · Issue 4

With increasing age, people can experience a reduction in physical, psychological and social health (Singh and Misra, 2009; de Mendonça Lima and Ivbijaro, 2013; Kemperman et al, 2019). This decline in health can affect all aspects of an individual's life, with a reduction in mobility (Rantakokko et al, 2013; Rantanen, 2013), ability to complete activities of daily living (Royall et al, 2005), social networking (Kemperman et al, 2019), increased risk of falls (Mahagna et al, 2019), hospitalisation (Nunes et al, 2017) and multimorbidity (Barnett et al, 2012). There is growing concern that these common complications in older adults could be amplified by the current climate, with lockdowns, curfews and social distancing being used as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic (Armitage and Nellums, 2020; Plagg et al, 2020).

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