Postmenopausal women’s cognitive function and performance of virtual reality tasks

Abstract

Objective

This study aimed to assess whether prior knowledge of computer use determines performance of virtual reality tasks by postmenopausal women and whether menopausal symptoms, sociodemographic factors, lifestyle and cognition modify or interfere with their performance.

Method

This cross-sectional study included 152 postmenopausal women divided into two groups: computer users and non-users. Age, ethnicity, time of menopause, menopausal symptoms, female health status, level of physical activity and cognitive function were considered. The participants played a virtual reality game and were assessed for hits, errors, omissions and game time. The Mann–Whitney, chi-square and Fisher exact tests and multivariate linear regression analysis were used.

Results

Postmenopausal computer users play virtual reality games (p = 0.005) better than postmenopausal non-users of computers. Vasomotor symptoms were high in women who used computers compared to those who did not (p = 0.006). Multivariate linear regression analysis found that the best-fitting predictors for the number of hits – that is, age (p = 0.039), Mini-Mental State Examination score (p = 0.006) and the headache symptom (p = 0.021) – influence the performance of virtual reality tasks.

Conclusion

Computer users performed virtual reality tasks better than non-users. Headache and age but not vasomotor symptoms negatively affected the postmenopausal women’s performance.

摘要

目的:本研究旨在评估计算机应用的先验知识是否决定绝经后女性在虚拟现实游戏中的表现, 以及绝经症状、社会人口因素、生活方式和认知是否会改变或干扰她们的表现。

方法:本横断面研究纳入152名绝经后女性, 分为两组: 电脑使用者和非电脑使用者。考虑了年龄、种族、绝经时间、绝经症状、女性健康状况、身体活动水平和认知功能。参与者进行了一个虚拟现实游戏, 并对击中、失误、遗漏和游戏时间进行了评估。采用Mann - Whitney、卡方检验和Fisher精确检验及多元线性回归分析。

结果:绝经后电脑使用者比绝经后非电脑使用者在进行虚拟现实游戏中表现更好(p < 0.005)。使用电脑的女性血管舒缩症状比不使用电脑的女性高(p < 0.006)。多元线性回归分析发现, 命中次数的最合适预测因子—即年龄(p < 0.039)、简易精神状态检测分数(p < 0.006)和头痛症状(p < 0.021)——会影响虚拟现实游戏中的表现。

Keywords:

• Postmenopause
• virtual reality
• video games
• user–computer interface
• cognition

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Centro Universitário FMABC and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Universidade de São Paulo.

Potential conflict of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Source of funding

This work was supported by the CNPQ (Brasilia, Br) [Gant # 301725/2017-9]; Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES; Scholarship holder: Juliana Zangirolami-Raimundo) and Fundação de Amaparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP, holder José Maria Soares Junior) [Grant # 2018/24224-9].

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the CNPQ (Brasilia, Br) [Grant # 301725/2017-9]; Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES; Scholarship holder: Juliana Zangirolami-Raimundo) [25772861808]