Does wearing augmented and virtual reality googles affect the balance of older adults?

The purpose of this study was to assess if wearing augmented and virtual reality googles affect the balance of older adults. Nine community dwelling older adults who could walk without assistive devices participated in the pilot study. Balance was assessment using an AMTI OR6-700 Force Plate with an acquisition rate of 1000 Hz. The participants stood on the force plate for 20 seconds with eyes open and no googles, with augmented reality (AR) googles displaying a wall to the side and a path ahead, and with virtual reality (VR) googles displaying the same scenario. Wearing the AR googles did not affect the balance very much, but wearing the VR googles had a clinically relevant effect on balance even though the changes were not statistically significant for most variables due to the large variability of the data. Larger studies with a bigger sample size are needed for a definitive conclusion.