Dance movement therapy and falls prevention

Weren't these earlier ones enough to have this therapy installed in your hospital? How incompetent is your hospital that research outcomes are never implemented?

Cognitive Benefits of Social Dancing and Walking in Old Age: The Dancing Mind Randomized Controlled Trial May, 2016

Therapeutic Argentine Tango Dancing for People with Mild Parkinson’s Disease: A Feasibility Study July, 2015

Feasibility of Delivering a Dance Intervention for SubAcute Stroke in a Rehabilitation Hospital Setting March, 2015

New framework for rehabilitation – fusion of cognitive and physical rehabilitation: the hope for dancing Feb. 2015

Dancing Makes You Smarter? How Dancing may Prevent Dementia April 2013

 The latest here:

Dance movement therapy and falls prevention

Maturitas

Veronese N, et al.

In this study, researchers examining whether dance can decrease falls and improve fear of falling in older adults. They found a paucity of studies exploring the impact of dance on falls and fear of falling and the evidence base is preliminary and equivocal. Given the heterogeneity of the included samples and interventions, in addition to the short–term follow–up, no firm conclusions can be drawn. In any case, dance seems to be safe and, given its popularity and showed benefits on other health/wellbeing outcomes in older adults, it is important that future research considers its potential benefits on falls/fear of falling in older age.

• Falls are a leading cause of morbidity, healthcare utilizes and mortality.
• Dance is a popular form of physical activity among older people and previous research has suggested that it may enhance various health outcomes in this population, including balance, gait and muscle performance.
• A systematic review of the potential benefits of dance on falls and fear of falling is lacking.
• Therefore, they led a systematic review considering all randomized controls trials (RCTs) researching if dance can decrease falls and improve fear of falling in older adults.
• Major databases were sought from inception until 1 March 2017 and a total of 10 RCTs were recognized, which included a total of 680 people (n = 356 dance, n = 324 control).
• Overall, the mean age of the samples was 69.4 years, and 75.2% were female.
• Across four RCTs, dance therapy reduced falls versus usual care in only one study.
• They found dance therapy improved fear of falling in two out of three included RCTs.
• There were no serious adverse events reported in the RCTs.