Systematic Review of AR/VR Applications for Health and Wellness: Trends and Future Opportunities
Grace Ataguba, Halleluyah Oluwatobi Aworinde, Sussan Anukem, Oladapo Oyebode, Rita Orji · International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction · 2025
Augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) have gained a lot of attention from the research community over the years. They have been widely adopted in healthcare and have been used to deliver interventions tailored to general health, physical health, mental health and other areas of health. Although many interventions exist, few studies have systematically examined the trends and challenges affecting their overall effectiveness. This research addresses that gap by systematically reviewing 174 papers published between 2014 and 2024. Our review uncovers how AR and VR interventions have been designed to manage a range of health-related conditions, their success in achieving health outcomes, and the emerging trends in multimodal designs that may guide future research. Findings from the review suggest that adopting multimodal approaches holds promise for addressing multiple health conditions simultaneously. We provide insights and recommendations for designing more effective AR and VR health interventions, thereby contributing to advancement of HCI research and practical applications in healthcare.