The Effect of Dance Therapy on Pulmonary and Cognitive Function in the Elderly

Lee, Young Ran; Yu, Sook Ja

Abstract

This study was done to explore the effects of dance therapy on pulmonary and cognitive functions in the elderly. The design of this study was a non-equivalent pre-post test experiment. The subjects consisted of elderly persons living in a facility located in Kyoungi-Do. Fifty eight subjects had normal cognition, sensory function and resting blood pressure. They underwent tests of pulmonary and cognitive function as baseline data before dance therapy, and at 6th week and at the end of 12nd week after following dance therapy. Twenty seven elderly persons were assigned to the experimental group and participated with the dance therapy. This therapy was based on the Marian Chace's dance therapy and Korean traditional dance with music. The dance therapy consisted of 50 minutes session, 3 times a week for 12 weeks. One session consisted of warming-up, expression, catharsis, sharing and closing stage. the intensity of the dance therapy was at the 40% of age-adjusted maximum heart rates. Data were analyzed with mean, standard deviation, Chi-square test, unpaired t-test, repeated measures ANOVA, and Bonferroni multiple regression using SAS program. The results were as follows: 1. Pulmonary function(forced expiratory volumn at one second and forced vital capacity) of the experimental subjects significantly increased over time more than that of the control subjects. 2. The experimental group had significantly higher score for pulmonary function than the control group at the 12nd week after dance therapy. 3. Cognitive function of the experimental subjects significantly increased over time more than that of the control subjects. 4. The experimental group had significantly higher score for cognitive function than the control group at the 6th week and 12nd week after dance therapy. The findings showed the dance therapy could be effective in improving the pulmonary and cognitive function of the elderly.