Virtual reality (VR) sports games are increasingly becoming important tools for enhancing cognitive and physical health among older adults. However, current research faces several challenges. Many experimental studies utilize existing games designed for general populations, lacking those specifically tailored for older adults; small sample sizes limit the generalizability of results; and issues such as cybersickness and technology adaptability remain challenges, although progress has been made. This literature review employs the PRISMA method to assess the latest research findings on the impact of VR sports games in improving cognitive and physical functions in older adults. We conducted a search in the Web of Science and SCOPUS databases, selecting literature related to VR interventions for balance, muscle strength, memory, and concentration enhancement. From an initial pool of 1705 articles, 12 studies met the inclusion criteria. Results indicate that VR sports games significantly enhance older adults’ exercise motivation through immersive experiences, while real-time feedback promotes the simultaneous improvement of cognitive and physical abilities. Furthermore, the social interaction elements within the VR environment effectively alleviate feelings of loneliness and enhance engagement longevity. Future research should focus on developing personalized and collaborative VR game designs and exploring their applications in home rehabilitation and community care to enhance accessibility and long-term effects. This review provides theoretical and practical support for the innovative application of VR technology in promoting healthy aging. It will benefit technology developers and researchers focused on the cognitive and physical health of older adults.

Background: Despite the increasing adoption of immersive Virtual Reality (VR) in K−12 educational settings, there is a notable absence of systematic, high-quality experimental research evaluating its efficacy in facilitating foreign language acquisition. Methods: Following a systematic search of five databases that yielded 1,054 records, six randomized controlled trials (RCTs) met the inclusion criteria. Because of considerable heterogeneity, a narrative synthesis was conducted following the Synthesis Without Meta-analysis (SWiM) guideline, with findings structured into a primary contrast (VR vs. non-VR) and a secondary analysis (VR vs. VR designs). Results: The primary contrast analysis indicated that VR interventions generally had a positive effect compared to non-VR controls, particularly for vocabulary and listening. A notable finding was a consistent positive effect for VR in promoting long-term knowledge retention. The risk of bias evaluation indicated that each of the included studies was classified as presenting “some concerns”. Conclusion: Across a small and heterogeneous set of recent RCTs, immersive VR shows promising effects, especially for long-term retention. However, the evidence for immediate learning gains is inconclusive. A more critical finding is the profound heterogeneity and methodological concerns within the evidence base, which preclude any single, overarching conclusion about VR's effectiveness.

Background: Longer life expectancy makes physical exercise crucial for active aging. However, adherence to traditional exercise among community-dwelling older adults is generally low. Virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) Tai Chi exergames, as novel health promotion tools, show significant potential, particularly for older adults exercising in a home setting. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the usability and feasibility of a VR and MR Tai Chi exergame for community-dwelling older adults, focusing on subjective experience, physiological comfort, and objective interaction performance. The study also explored the relationships between key usability factors and sought to quantify links between objective accuracy and subjective experience (the Game Experience Questionnaire or Virtual Reality Sickness Questionnaire [VRSQ]) to inform choices of display mode, feedback strength, and session length. Methods: Of the 86 community-dwelling older adults recruited for this study, data from 70 participants were considered valid after an initial screening, during which 16 (18.6%) were excluded due to issues with VR adaptation. Participants were sequentially assigned in a rotating order to 1 of 4 variants (VR/MR×soothing/intense) to balance exposure; however, primary analyses were preplanned to be collapsed across variants, focusing on whole-sample usability and feasibility rather than confirmatory between-group hypotheses. The primary outcome measures included the Game Experience Questionnaire, VRSQ, and objective gameplay logs. Results: The VR/MR Tai Chi game demonstrated good overall usability and acceptability among the screened participants. Subjective experience was highly positive, with median scores for “positive affect” (median 4.0) and “competence” (median 3.8) being significantly high, whereas the median for “Challenge” (median 1.4) was significantly low ( P <.001 for all). Physiological comfort in the postscreening sample was acceptable, with the most common mild symptoms being dizziness with eyes closed (20.0%) and vertigo (18.6%), both of low severity; however, the initial exclusion of 18.6% of participants due to VR discomfort is noteworthy. Therefore, generalizability is limited because the analyzed sample overrepresents older adults who tolerate immersive displays. Accuracy showed significant positive correlations with flow (ρ=0.342) and competence (ρ=0.322), whereas the VRSQ total score was significantly negatively correlated with positive affect (ρ=−0.334, P =.005). Conclusions: Tai Chi exergames based on immersive technologies offer a feasible and attractive pathway for promoting physical exercise among community-dwelling older adults, particularly within the home environment, supporting the goal of aging in place. As a single, laboratory-based session, the reported satisfaction may partly reflect a novelty effect; therefore, longer-term, home-based follow-ups are needed to assess durability. Analysis of the key usability factors provides guidance for specific design choices, while also indicating directions for future research, such as longitudinal evaluations, extension to more diverse populations, and application in real-world home settings.

Algorithmically curated feeds have become a default layer of everyday life, offering rapid affect regulation under academic pressure while also reshaping attention and self-regulation. Moving beyond the generic “screen time” debate, this study examines a socio-technical pathway in which perceived pressure uncertainty is associated with academic amotivation through immersive escapism and self-regulatory fatigue. We surveyed 518 university students in China and measured pressure uncertainty, immersive escapism, self-regulatory fatigue, and academic amotivation. Using confirmatory factor analysis and latent structural equation modeling with ordinal indicators, while controlling demographics and entertainment-focused scrolling time, we found that pressure uncertainty was positively associated with immersive escapism. Immersive escapism, in turn, was positively associated with self-regulatory fatigue, which was associated with higher academic amotivation. Competing path models were more consistent with the hypothesized ordering than with alternative specifications. These findings suggest that platform-shaped digital relief may be linked to a depletion-oriented coping loop with educational consequences, pointing to intervention leverage points that are more actionable than broad calls to simply “use less.” We discuss implications for higher education (digital wellbeing support, self-regulation scaffolding, and algorithm-related digital literacy) and for platform design and accountability (greater user control, transparency, and pacing mechanisms that may interrupt maladaptive loops).

Background: Consumer-facing AI tools are becoming part of digital health information seeking, but their potential benefits and information-safety risks remain insufficiently understood. Objective: This exploratory cross-sectional study examined AI-mediated health information seeking, information overload, uncertainty-related searching, health anxiety, digital health self-management, and conditional acceptance of AI-assisted health communication support in a university-centered Chinese sample. Methods: An online survey of 364 participants assessed AI health information use, queried health topics, preferred AI functions, boundary expectations, privacy control, and related psychological and self-management outcomes. Analyses included descriptive statistics, reliability and measurement-validity checks, correlations, HC3 robust regression models, clean-sample sensitivity analyses, and exploratory network analysis. Results: Health anxiety was associated primarily with information overload and uncertainty-related searching, rather than AI use itself in adjusted models. Digital health self-management was positively associated with AI use and boundary expectations. Conditional acceptance of AI-assisted health communication support was associated with AI use, boundary expectations, and perceived privacy control. Sensitivity analyses showed substantively similar patterns after excluding potentially low-quality responses. Conclusions: In this university-centered, self-report sample, AI-mediated health information seeking appeared to involve both support-oriented and information-safety-related patterns. The findings should be interpreted as preliminary cross-sectional associations. Safe and acceptable AI health information support may depend on reducing overload, managing uncertainty, protecting privacy, and maintaining clear boundaries between AI assistance and professional care.

Emotion-recognition-enabled smart care devices are increasingly proposed for home-based rehabilitation and elderly care, yet evidence on prospective user and family caregiver acceptance remains limited. This study investigated public attitudes, concerns, interaction preferences, and design expectations regarding such devices through a cross-sectional online survey of 506 adults in China. Respondents answered from either a prospective individual-user perspective ( n = 339) or a family caregiver perspective ( n = 167). Descriptive statistics, Top-2 Box summaries, and visual comparisons were used to analyze acceptance, scenario priorities, sensing preferences, data-sharing attitudes, and perceived device roles. Overall, respondents showed favorable but conditional acceptance. Privacy transparency, reliability, and recognition accuracy emerged as key adoption conditions, while concerns about emotional data misuse and machine accuracy remained salient. Participants prioritized home-based rehabilitation and health management scenarios, preferred wearable physiological sensing over camera-based monitoring, and favored human-in-the-loop interaction over fully automated responses. Family caregivers showed descriptively stronger endorsement than prospective individual users on several selected items, although the overall pattern was broadly consistent across groups and should not be interpreted as evidence of statistically significant subgroup differences. The findings suggest that emotion-recognition-enabled smart care devices may be more acceptable when designed around four principles: safety first, human-in-the-loop control, low-intrusion sensing, and bounded empathy. Because the sample consisted mainly of online adult respondents rather than actual older adult users, the findings should be interpreted as exploratory evidence on prospective acceptance rather than as direct evidence of real-world adoption.