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Author(s) Laura Britten, Christine Addington and Sarah Astill |
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Title Dancing in time: feasibility and acceptability of a contemporary dance programme to modify risk factors for falling in community dwelling older adults |
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Publication |
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Institution of corresponding author University of Leeds |
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Corresponding author S Astill |
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Keywords Dance, wellbeing, professional development, impact evaluation |
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Catalogue entry The researchers are interested in the impact of particular arts activities on the health and wellbeing of older adults. For instance falls and the resulting injuries, which are a major focus for public health departments, may result from a number of physical and psychosocial factors that may be influenced by a programme of physical activity. In this project they investigate and measure the effect of a participative contemporary dance programme on older adults. They did this through recruiting three groups of older people from local community groups to participate in three separate 8 week dance programmes. Quantitative and qualitative measures were employed to produce the data to which a thematic statistical analysis was then applied. Their results show that there is justification for the employment of approaches to designing this sort of provision that encourage personal expression rather than mechanical repetition. They show that older women in particular may benefit. You will find this article useful if you wish to argue that creative activity involving personal expression has a measurable beneficial impact that compares well by comparison with other activities, or no activity. |
