Efficacy of Virtual Reality Program for Mental Health Promotion in Pregnant Women
Boram Lee1, Hyun Ju Lim2,3, Jeonghyun Park2, Kyungwon Kim1,2,4, Hwagyu Suh1,2,4, Byung Dae Lee1,2,4, Young Min Lee1,2,4, Eunsoo Moon1,2,4, Du-Ri Kim2,5, Jong-Hwan Park2,5, Myung-Jun Shin2,6, Yean-Hwa Lee7
1Department of Psychiatry, Pusan National University Hospital, Busan, Korea
2Biomedical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, Busan, Korea
3Department of Psychology, Gyeoungsang National University, Jinju, Korea
4Department of Psychiatry, Pusan National University School of Medicine, Yangsan, Korea
5Health Convergence Medicine Laboratory, Pusan National University Hospital, Busan, Korea
6Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Pusan National University Hospital, Pusan National University School of Medicine, Busan, Korea
7SY Inotech, Busan, Korea
Correspondence to: Eunsoo Moon
Department of Psychiatry and Biomedical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, Pusan National University School of Medicine, 179 Gudeok-ro, Seo-gu, Busan 49241, Korea
E-mail: esmun@hanmail.net
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8863-3413
Received: September 9, 2023; Revised: December 7, 2023; Accepted: December 17, 2023; Published online: January 18, 2024.
© The Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology. All rights reserved.

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Objective: Recently, various mental health promotion programs using virtual reality (VR) technology have been tried in the psychiatric field. Considering the importance of mental health in pregnant women, VR-assisted mental health promotion programs for pregnant women are needed to be developed. This study aimed to prospectively investigate the efficacy of a VR-assisted mental health promotion program for pregnant women.
Methods: Fifty-five pregnant women were participated in this study. Mental health states such as depression, anxiety, perceived stress, and quality of life were assessed by Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), Perceived Stress Scale, and World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale Abbreviated Version (WHOQOL-BREF) before and after using VR program treatment. Based on the mental health types of pregnant women classified by cluster analysis, the effects of the VR program were analyzed by paired t-test and Wilcoxon signed rank test.
Results: The VR program significantly reduced PHQ-9 (p = 0.033) and GAD-7 (p = 0.046) scores, and significantly increased WHOQOL-BREF (p = 0.026) score of the participants. Additionally, when classifying the mental health types of pregnant women, the VR program was significantly effective to improve depression, anxiety, and quality of life in the most severe group based on the cluster analysis.
Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that VR program may be effective to improve the mental health of pregnant women. Particularly, VR programs for the high-risk group of depression might be the most effective. Therefore, VR-assisted mental health promotion programs could be useful for managing the mental health in pregnant women.
Keywords: Mental health; Health promotion; Depression; Anxiety; Pregnancy; Virtual reality

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