Consistent pain affects most middle-aged and older ovarian cancer patients. Non-pharmacological pain interventions, such as serious games, offer a promising approach to alleviating this pain by providing an effective sense of immersion. However, current games on the pain alleviation lack examination of its efficacy in middle-aged and older population and real-time monitoring of immersion level, particular since immersion level is highly associated with pain alleviation effect and adjustable to challenging level of game difficulty. This study developed a serious game with biofeedback-driven dynamic difficulty. Then examined its feasibility and efficacy through a two-arm, single-blinded randomized controlled trial. A total of 52 participants were recruited and randomized into intervention group and control group to receive biofeedback-based dynamic-difficulty serious game or fix-difficulty serious game for 15 mins each, respectively. The primary outcome was the assessment of the pain level, measured using the Visual Analog Scale. The secondary outcomes included pain-related anxiety, immersion level, and user experience.
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Pain level
Timeframe: 15 mins