Parents', Teachers', and Sledders' Acceptability of a Virtual Reality Game for Sledding Safety Education: Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: Sledding is a common recreational activity in the Alpine region, practiced by families, friends, and at school, but it is rarely considered to cause serious injuries. Current actions to promote safe sledding are limited to announcements at the start of dedicated tracks or to didactic sheets presented by teachers in schools. However, these actions are currently limited and do not allow the development of piloting technique skills. Virtual reality has the potential to develop piloting skills, although the development of a virtual reality for sledding safety education needs to be guided by its acceptability.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to (1) examine the acceptability of the virtual reality game for sledding safety education from the perspective of different potential user profiles (ie, parents, teachers, and sledders) based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 enriched by the health locus of control (HLC), and (2) understand participants' preferences and needs in terms of features to be integrated to the technology.

Methods: Three profiles of participants (ie, parents, teachers, or sledders) were recruited through email diffusion from elementary schools, university, and ski resort announcements (Tyrol, Austria). They completed a series of questionnaires measuring: (1) demographic and general information, (2) acceptability of virtual reality sledding game for safety education (named VRodel), (3) perception of HLC, and (4) preferences and needs for VRodel.

Results: A total of 122 participants (15 teachers, 43 parents or legal guardians, and 64 sledders) completed the survey. Findings reveal that the constructs of hedonic motivation (β=.43, P<.001), price sensitivity (β=.28, P<.001), and habit (β=.36, P<.001) explained 65% of the variance in behavioral intention to use VRodel. Two acceptability clusters were identified (low and high), but no differences between the acceptability clusters emerged based on age, status, gender, or previous virtual reality use. Internal HLC was positively correlated with all dimensions of acceptability except social influence and facilitating conditions. Some correlations between acceptability constructs were also shown with powerful others' HLC. Participants highlighted the need to include realistic visual details and realistic interactions in the virtual environment for development.

Conclusions: The acceptability of a virtual reality game for sledding safety education was quite high, and relationships with HLC were shown in the expected directions. Based on participants' preferences, developers are advised to promote immersion in the game.