Dancing Has Some Serious Health Benefits

A four-month dance program helped older Latino adults walk faster and improve their physical fitness, which may reduce their risk for heart disease, according to research presented at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology/Lifestyle 2016 Scientific Sessions.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago tested whether a community-based intervention focused on Latin dancing could benefit 54 Spanish-speaking adults (about 65 years old) who were not very physically active. Participants were randomly assigned to either a dance program twice a week for four months or a health education program. All participants completed questionnaires about their leisure-time physical activity and a 400-meter walk test at the start and end of the study.

After four months of twice-weekly Latin dancing, researchers found:

• Dancers walked faster and were more physically active during their leisure time than before they started dancing.
• Dancers completed a 400-meter walk in just under 392 seconds, compared with almost 430 seconds at the start of the study.
• Leisure physical activity rose from 650 minutes to nearly 818 minutes per week.

Those in the health education classes had a smaller improvement in their fitness — they finished the 400-meter walk in about 409 seconds at the end of the study, compared with 419 seconds four months earlier; total weekly leisure physical activity increased from 522 minutes to 628 minutes over the course of the study.

The program, called BAILAMOS©, is a culturally tailored, community-based lifestyle intervention developed at the University of Illinois at Chicago by David X. Marquez and Miguel Mendez. It included four dance styles — merengue, bachata, cha-cha, and salsa — with more complex choreography as the program progressed.

Increasing physical activity is one of the key goals of the American Heart Association, which calls for all adults to get a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate physical activity, or at least 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity (or a combination of both), each week. Regular physical activity has been shown to significantly reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes, reduce complications associated with advancing age, improve balance and mobility, and reduce stress.

“There are many barriers older Latino adults face, and they are busy with caregiving and other responsibilities, so often physical activity takes a back seat,” said Priscilla Vásquez, M.P.H., lead study author at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “This program engaged them on many levels — physically, culturally, and emotionally. Anecdotally, I’ve heard participants say attending dance class is their stress relief. They also interact with others and build community. This impacts their physical as well as emotional health and wellbeing.”