Nature as a Buffer Among People With Chronic Pain

Virtual Nature: Benefits for Older Adults Who Experience Chronic Pain?

Status

Completed

Phases

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT03153891

Enrollment

Registered

2017-05-15

Start date

2016-07-01

Completion date

2018-06-30

Last updated

2019-04-01

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Chronic Pain

Keywords

environment, nature

Brief summary

This randomized controlled trial examines the effect of nature exposure on pain intensity levels among older adults who experience chronic pain. Investigators examine the effects of nature on: the experience of chronic pain, on pain catastrophizing, and on attention restoration.

Detailed description

Nature has been used to reduce pain in the context of acute pain (e.g., during painful medical procedures) but nature has not been examined as an intervention strategy to address chronic pain. Second, the mechanism though which nature might reduce the experience of pain is not well understood. Participants are cognitively intact individuals aged 60-90 who experience chronic pain and who rate their health as fair, good or excellent. Participants are randomly assigned to one of three conditions: virtual reality (VR) nature; VR built environment; or control. Researchers examine effects of VR nature exposure on the experience of chronic pain, pain catastrophizing, and on attention restoration as well as the relations among these variables.

Interventions

OTHERNatural Environment

the natural environment will be delivered via Samsung VR gear goggles with Samsung smartphone.

OTHERBuilt Environment

the built environment will be delivered via Samsung VR gear goggles with Samsung smartphone.

Study design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

60 Years to 90 Years

Healthy volunteers

Inclusion criteria

* rate health as fair good or excellent * experience chronic pain * cognitively intact * do not use wheelchair

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Experience of chronic pain	up to 3 weeks; from date of randomization until 2nd data collection date	rating of pain intensity, on scale of 1-10

Secondary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Pain catastrophizing	up to 3 weeks; from date of randomization until 2nd data collection date	rate 13 items on 5-point scale (0-4) (Sullivan, et al., 2001)
cognitive functioning	up to 3 weeks; from date of randomization until 2nd data collection date	attention restoration - digit span forward & backwards; Attention Network Test

Countries

United States

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026