Objective: The aim of the present study is to investigate the short-term effects of weekly dance classes on the Quality of Life (QOL) of PD patients.

Background: PD shows a myriad of motor and non-motor symptoms that decrease the patient’s QOL. Several studies investigated the long-term effect of dance for people with PD. It is shown that dance influences on diverse motor and non-motor aspects of PD, and is one enriched environment known to increase neurotrofic factors which promote brain plasticity.

Methods: 15 PD patients, ~ 5 years since diagnosis, aged 67.5±8.3 years and stages 1-3 on the Hoehn and Yahr scale were submitted to two weekly sessions of dance classes. The lecture protocol was a modified version of the weekly dance class from Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG)/Brooklyn Parkinson Group, New York. The dance sequences combined elements of classic ballet, jazz, modern dance, contemporary dance, and elements of dance expression. After 6 months, the participants were subjected to motor tests and QOL assessment with a modified version of the Westheimer (2008) questionnaire, used for evaluation of the well-being of the patients immediately after the dance class. It contains questions about the body-feeling, the mood, mobility after the dance session, the impact in daily life activities, the duration and impact of dance classes over their QOL.

Results: For the questions about body-feeling, mood, mobility and impact of dance classes the rating was on a scale of 1 (much better) to 5 (much worse). We found a beneficial short-term effect of the dance class on all the described aspects, with 73.3% of the patients reporting a “better” (scale 4 of 5) regarding the body feeling, 53.3%  reported “better” mood state, 93.33% reported “much better” (scale 5 of 5) for improvement of QOL and 86.6% reported to have “better” mobility after the dance classes. The rating for the question about the duration of such impact was from 1 (minutes) to 4 (weeks). 60% of the patients reported that such beneficial effects lasted for days, while the remaining pointed for a duration of hours.

Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that dance has beneficial effects over the QOL of PD patients. By the combination of many aspects as movement, rhythm, emotional expression, musical experience and social interaction, dance figures as a very rich tool for complementary motor therapies, essential for the management of the disease.

References: Westheimer, O. (2008).Why dance for Parkinson’s disease. Top. Geriatr. Rehabil. 24, 127–140.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/impact-of-weekly-dance-classes-on-quality-of-life-of-individuals-with-parkinsons-disease/