Effect of Korean Traditional Dance Movement Training on Psychophysiological Variables in Korean Elderly Women

Jeon, Mi Yang; Choe, Myoung Ae

Abstract

Regular long term dance movement could be one of ways to induce improvement of psychophysiological variables, resulting in improvement of quality of life. However, there have been few studies to evaluate the effect of dance movement training on both physiological and psychological variables in the elderly. This study was focused to determine the effect of Korean traditional dance movement training on psychophysiological variables-body weight, body fat, lean body mass, muscle strength, muscle endurance, flexibility, agility, resting heart rate and blood pressure, depression and life satisfaction-in Korean elderly women. Thirty four subjects, aged between 65 and 75years who have normal cognition, sensory function, cerebellum function, cardiovascular function, participated in this study. Seventeen experimental group subjects were selected from E-elderly university in Kyung Gi province, and Seventeen control group subjects were selected from N -welfare facility in Seoul City. Seventeen experimental group subjects participated for 12weeks dance movement program. Korean traditional dance movement program was developed on the basis of Korean traditional dance and music by the author. The program consisted of approximately 50minutes of dance, 3times a week for 12weeks. During 50minutes workout, there were 15minutes of warm-up dancing, 25minutes of conditioning dance and 10minutes of cool-down dancing. The intensity for the conditioning phase was at between 60% and 65% of age-adjusted maximum heart rates. The body weight, body fat, lean body mass, muscle strength(grip strength, leg strength), muscle endurance, flexibility, agility, resting heart rate and blood pressure, depression and life satisfaction were measured prior to and following the experimental treatment. The participants in dance movement were interviewed focusing on subjective feeling following 12 week's regular dance movement. Data were analyzed with mean, standard deviation, percentage of change, X2-test, t-test, and ANCOVA test using SPSS PC+ program. Subjec tive feeling was categorized into cognitopsy-chological and physiological responses. Results were obtained as follows: 1) The body weight(F=15.52, p=.000), body fat (F=18.33, p=.000) and lean body mass(F=7.28, p=.011) of the experimental group were significantly lower than those Of the control group following the dance movement training. 2) The leg strength (F=30.96, p=.000), muscle endurance (F=9.06, p=.005), agility(F=44.92, 000), flexibility(F=6.84, p=.014) of the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group following the dance movement training. There was no significant difference of grip strength (F=. 43, p=.515) between experimental and control groups. 3) The heart rate(F=26.96, p=.000), systolic (F=10.40, p=.000) and diastolic(F=3.99, p= .005) blood pressure at rest of the experimental group were significantly lower than those of the control group following the dance movement training. 4) No significant difference of score of depression (F=3.49, p=.071) was observed between experimental and control groups. 5) Score of life satisfaction of experimental group was remarkably higher than that of control group following 12weeks of dance movement training (p<0.05). 6) Thematic responses about the dance movement following the training were positive. "I feel good" was the most frequent among cognitopsychol-ogical responses and "I feel lightness of body" was the most frequent among physiological responses. The results suggest that Korean traditional dance movement training can improve psychophysiological variables of Korean elderly.