Dancing for Health and Wellbeing: A Feasibility Study of Examining Health Impacts of Online Dancing among Pulmonary Fibrosis Patients

Vikram Niranjan (), Giampiero Tarantino, Jaspal Kumar, Nicola Cassidy, Liam Galvin, Gemma O’Dowd, Tracey Barnes, Finola O’Neill, Matthew Cullen, Ray O’Connor and Andrew O’Regan
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Vikram Niranjan: School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science, University College Dublin, D04 V1W8 Dublin, Ireland
Giampiero Tarantino: School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science, University College Dublin, D04 V1W8 Dublin, Ireland
Jaspal Kumar: NUS Centre for Cancer Research, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119077, Singapore
Nicola Cassidy: Irish Lung Fibrosis Association, D01 V9Y4 Dublin, Ireland
Liam Galvin: Irish Lung Fibrosis Association, D01 V9Y4 Dublin, Ireland
Gemma O’Dowd: Irish Lung Fibrosis Association, D01 V9Y4 Dublin, Ireland
Tracey Barnes: Dancing for Health CIC, Derbyshire S18 2GR, UK
Finola O’Neill: Irish Lung Fibrosis Association, D01 V9Y4 Dublin, Ireland
Matthew Cullen: Irish Lung Fibrosis Association, D01 V9Y4 Dublin, Ireland
Ray O’Connor: School of Medicine, University of Limerick, V94 T9PX Limerick, Ireland
Andrew O’Regan: School of Medicine, University of Limerick, V94 T9PX Limerick, Ireland

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 20, 1-14

Abstract: Background: Physical activity (PA) is recommended in the management of patients with pulmonary fibrosis (PF) to improve health outcomes. Dance is one such form of PA which is meaningful, valuable, enjoyable and has demonstrated positive physical and mental health effects. Methods: With pre-post design, 16 patients, members of the Irish Lung Fibrosis Association, were enrolled in this study. Once weekly, 75-min dance sessions were delivered for eight weeks via Zoom by an experienced choreographer. Participants completed Chronic Respiratory Questionnaire Self-Administered Standardised Format (CRQ-SAS) and European Quality of Life 5 Dimensions 3 Level Version (EQ-5D-3L) to assess self-rated quality of life. A paired-sample t-test was employed to assess the mean differences between the pre-and post-intervention scores. Results: Most patients (78.57%) were aged over 60 years; with 71.43% diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis more than 3 years ago. We performed an analysis of 10/16 participants who completed the intervention (5 males, 5 females). On CRQ-SAS scale we found, (a) dyspnoea—small to moderate magnitude improvement of 0.5–1.0 among 50%, (b) fatigue—small to moderate magnitude improvement of 0.5–1.0 among 40%, (c) emotional function—small to high magnitude improvement of 0.5–2.0 among 50%, (d) mastery—small magnitude improvement of 0.5 among 20%. Participants reported their health moderate to best on Visual Analogue Scale of EQ-5D-3L which improved by 1–3 scale among 40%. Mental health improved as percentage of not feeling anxious or depressed rose post event from 42.86% to 72.73%. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate that a virtual dance intervention is acceptable, enjoyable and feasible for improving health outcomes among PF patients. More organised and continuous events in future may reveal cost-benefit ratio and impact on health outcomes.

Keywords: dance; wellbeing; quality of life; community-engaged research; chronic disease; pulmonary fibrosis; pulmonary diseases (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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