Characterization of the Effects of a Six-Month Dancing as Approach for Successful Aging

Abstract

Aging is accompanied by a decline in multiple domains. Positive effects of dance practice on several health issues have been evaluated in young adults, while the effects of regular social dance practice on physical fitness, sexual health, and cognitive functions have not been studied yet in older experienced dancers. Thus, the aim of this study has been to investigate whether a 6-month social dance practice might influence fitness performance, sexual health, and specific cognitive functions and/or mood characteristics in older experienced dancers. Thirty experienced dancers (age: 71.2±5.1 years, 18 females/12 males) were enrolled from the dance school “NonSoloLiscio” of Catanzaro. Body composition, physical fitness, sexual health, and cognitive functions were assessed before (T0) and after (T6) intervention. After 6 months of dance practice, percent of fat mass (%FM) significantly decreased (p<0.01), while fat-free mass (FFM) significantly increased (p<0.01) in both genders. Moreover, significant main effects of time on physical fitness tests, such as chair stand test (CST) (p<0.01), gait speed (p<0.05), and timed up and go (p<0.05), were found. Sexual health was significantly higher in males than in females at T0 and no significant effects of dance on subjects’ sexual health were found. Interestingly, trait of anxiety significant decreased (p<0.05) and perception of retrospective memory significantly increased (p=0.05) after training independently of gender. Our preliminary results suggest that, even in older intermediate-level dancer, the practice of social dance might positively influence body composition and also increase fitness performance, memory functions, and anxiety. In contrast, no effects on sexual health were observed after 6 months of dancing.

WITHDRAWN: A Systematic Review of the Literature Regarding Physical, Cognitive and Emotional Outcomes in Older Adults Practitioners of Physical Exercise

“…These outcomes were, mainly, related to physical performance [53,55], although emotional and cognitive outcomes were also studied, isolated [54,78] or combined [66] with the physical ones. This combination of physical, cognitive and emotional outcomes was observed in 14 (21%) out of the 66 chosen studies, where six of those 14 papers were published in 2019 [33,50,59,71,83,87]. According to this, it is conceivable that there is a current tendency of studying these combinations of physical, cognitive and emotional outcomes together with older adults.…”

“…The rest of studies included physical exercise interventions with differences in the length of those, from ve weeks (the shortest one) [61] to ve years [65]. In relation to the weekly frequency of physical exercise sessions, most of the interventions had two (29%) or three (52%) sessions per week in comparison to those with four [71] or ve [69] weekly sessions. Moreover, we found papers where the number of weekly sessions varied depending on the intervention group [63,77,79].…”

“…According to this, physical performance included some outcomes such as muscle strength [86], heart rate variability [36], stability [57], VO 2 peak [81], functional balance [95] or gait speed [87]. The studies on executive function [37], attention [41], memory [48], processing speed [93] or concentration [85] made allusion to cognitive performance, while studies of depression [49], anxiety [71], stress [52], health-related quality of life [80], mood [84] or happiness [96] were related to emotional performance. Those outcomes investigated from studies included in this systematic review that were not related to physical, cognitive and/or emotional performance were not included in Table 2.…”

A interferência da dança na mobilidade de idosos: revisão sistemática

“…Apenas três estudos 21,[23][24] não demonstraram resultados positivos com a dança quanto à força, equilíbrio e agilidade. Provavelmente devido nível físico dos participantes ou o tipo de movimento realizado que não era suficiente para promover um ganho significativo.…”

“…Provavelmente devido nível físico dos participantes ou o tipo de movimento realizado que não era suficiente para promover um ganho significativo. Em um dos estudos 23 os participantes já se encontravam em nível intermediário na dança.…”