Figure 4 Effects of IVR-based interventions on anxiety (Exclusion of 2
studies).
3.2.2 | Depression meta-analysis
Three studies16-18 respectively, exemplified the
effect of IVR on depression in breast cancer patients, and the results
showed that IVR-based interventions were effective in alleviating
depressive symptoms [SMD = -2.31, 95% CI = (-4.39,0.23)](Figure 5)
compared to the control group, with a statistically significant
difference (p < 0.05), but with a high degree of heterogeneity
(I2 = 97%). After excluding the Chirico et
al.18 ’s study, the combined effect size was
statistically significant and heterogeneity decreased significantly
[I2 =35%, SMD=-0.68, 95% CI=(-1.09,-0.27),
p=0.001](Figure 6). Heterogeneity may be related to treatment duration
and intervention period.