Evaluating Knowledge Outcomes of the Age-Friendly Health Systems and 4Ms Module in Medical Education: A Comparative Study of YouTube vs. Virtual Reality Platforms

TL;DR

This study compares VR and YouTube for teaching geriatric medicine to medical students and finds both effective, with VR showing a stronger impact due to interactivity.

Contribution

Demonstrates that VR training has a larger effect size than YouTube for geriatric education, despite similar knowledge gains.

Findings

VR and YouTube both significantly increased knowledge of the 4Ms framework.

VR showed a larger effect size (Cohen’s d = 0.82) compared to YouTube (d = 0.62).

No significant difference in knowledge gains was found between the two groups.

Abstract

This study evaluated and compared the effectiveness of Virtual Reality (VR) versus YouTube-based training in teaching the 4Ms framework: What Matters, Medication, Mentation, and Mobility, within a geriatric medicine course for second-year medical students. Pre- and post-training surveys were administered via REDCap, and matched sample t-tests and Cohen’s d effect size were conducted. VR training resulted in a mean knowledge increase of 0.55 (2.49 to 3.04, N=90), while YouTube training showed a 0.53 increase (2.58 to 3.11, N=76). Both showed statistically significant gains (p <0.001), with YouTube having a larger t-value (-7.39 vs. -6.41), but VR demonstrating a greater effect size (Cohen’s d = 0.82 vs. 0.62). However, an independent samples t-test revealed no significance in knowledge gains between groups (p = 0.80). These findings suggest that both modalities effectively enhance knowledge, with VR demonstrating a stronger effect size, likely due to its interactive effect. This highlights its potential use in medical education on geriatrics.