The Impact of Dance Movement Interventions on Psychological Health in Older Adults without Dementia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Background: Lifestyle-based multimodal interventions that integrate physical, sensory, cognitive and social enrichment are suggested to promote healthy mental aging and resilience against aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Objectives: This meta-analysis examined the efficacy of dance movement interventions (DMI) as an integrated mind-body activity on outcomes of psychological health in older adults.

Methods: Pre-registration was carried out with PROSPERO (CRD42021265112). PubMed, Web of Science and PsycINFO were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCT) evaluating the effects of DMI (>4 weeks' duration) compared to comparators on measures of psychological health (primary outcome) and cognitive function (additional outcome) among older adults without dementia (aged ≥55). Data of 14 primary RCT (n = 983, n-DMI = 494, n-control = 489) were synthesized using a random effects meta-analysis with robust variance estimation.

Results: DMI had a small positive effect on overall psychological health (g = 0.30; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.06, 0.53; p = 0.02, I²= 65.04) compared to control conditions. Small effects of DMI on positive and negative psychological domains as well as quality of life were not statistically significant. DMI had a medium positive effect on general cognitive function (g = 0.50; 95% CI: 0.12, 0.89, p = 0.02, I²= 79.61) over comparators. None of the primary intervention studies evaluated measures of neuroplasticity.

Conclusions: We found that DMI was effective in promoting mental health amongst older adults without dementia, suggesting that the multimodal enrichment tool is a potential strategy for health promotion and prevention of AD. High-quality intervention studies are needed to expand evidence on DMI-induced changes in specific psychological domains and identify underlying neurophysiological correlates.

Keywords: aging; dance; mild cognitive impairment; non-pharmacological intervention; prevention; randomized clinical trials.

Figure 1

PRISMA flowchart. Key. k, Number of studies; RCT, randomized control trial.

Figure 2

Summary of Risk of Bias Rating according to domains. Note. The risk of bias graph presents ratings for the 14 included studies rated regarding an intention-to-treat approach.