Jornal Internacional de Neurorreabilitação

Improving the Quality of Life in Persons with Dementia through a Pilot Study of a Creative Dance Movement Programme in an Asian Setting

Abstract

Shahul Hameed, Jinesh M. Shah, Simon Ting, Christopher Gabriel, Sze Yan Tay, Usanee Chotphoksap and Angela Liong

Background and Objectives: To study the effect of a creative dance movement programme on physical, social, psychological and overall well-being of dementia patients. Methods: A prospective, cohort study was performed outpatient, on ten community-dwelling patients with mildmoderate dementia, with their care-givers. All the study participants underwent a creative dance movement programme (Everyday Waltzes) by two dance therapists, weekly for six weeks. The Alzheimer’s disease Quality of Life Inventory (ADQoL) scores of both patients and their caregivers’ impression of the patient’s quality of life in each of the 13 items, and combinations of items to obtain physical, social and psychological domains, pre and post intervention were recorded in a numerical scale. Wilcoxon’s signed rank test was used to determine the statistical significance of any change in summated score of each of the domains and overall score, post intervention in both patients and caregivers. Results: Except for one of the items, all the items had improvements pre to post intervention ranging from 0 to 0.8 in patients and caregivers. For patients, the overall summated score was statistically significant for improvement post intervention with a p value of between 0.02 to 0.05. The improvements in the physical, psychological and social domains were not statistically significant. For caregivers, the improvement in post intervention was not statistically significant in neither the domains nor the overall score. Conclusion: A creative dance movement programme had a positive effect on overall well-being in patients with mild-moderate dementia in an Asian setting.