Bringing the museum into the hospital to promote cultural wellness in patients undergoing haemodialysis through a virtual reality tour

Previous studies placed copies of artworks in hospital environments to reduce stress and anxiety of patients. This study aims to investigate the psychological effect of a virtual tour of a museum provided by a virtual reality (VR) system in chronic patients suffering from Chronic Renal Failure (CRF) during the administration of haemodialysis. Twenty-six patients were enrolled at the Hospital where usually underwent for receiving their conventional therapy (CT) for CRF. Their positive and negative affect was measured by PANAS at baseline (before), after CT, and after CT in which a virtual museum visit experience (VR) was added, with a randomized cross-over design. Psychological distress, assessed as the evaluation of positive and negative emotion through PANAS scale, resulted in statistical difference among trait (baseline), CT and VR examination (p = 0.001), with specific difference between positive and negative poles (p < 0.001). Patients reported positive emotions for VR (mean = 28.1 ± 7.5) very close to the baseline (mean = 28.2 ± 8.1), suggesting a potential use of this technology as palliative treatment during CT. Psychological distress associated with CRF was shown to be reduceable by the museal visit fruition through the VR system. This positive effect was reconducted to the so-called cultural wellness potentially induce by the cultural heritage.