Abstract
Background: Women's health has received renewed attention in the last few years including health rehabilitation options for women affected by breast cancer. Dancing has often been regarded as one attractive option for supporting women's well-being and health, but research with women recovering from breast cancer is still in its infancy. Dancing with Health is multi-site pilot study that aimed to evaluate a dance programme for women in recovery from breast cancer across five European countries.Methods: A standardized 32 h dance protocol introduced a range of Latin American dances presented within a sports and exercise framework with influences from dance movement therapy. Fifty-four women (M age 53.51; SD 7.99) participated in the study who had a breast cancer diagnosis <3 years, chemotherapy >6 weeks, no indication of metastasis, or scheduled surgery/chemotherapy/radiation treatment for the duration of the intervention. Primary outcome data was collected for anthropometric and fitness measures next to cancer-related quality of life. T-tests and Wilcoxon signed ranked tests were used to establish differences pre and post intervention. Cohen's d was also calculated to determine the effect size of the intervention.Results: Statistically significant changes were found for: (i) weight, right and left forearm circumference and hip; (ii) 6 min walking, right and left handgrip, sit-to-stand and sit-and-reach; (iii) the EORTC-QLQ C30 summary score as well as the subscales of emotional and social functioning and symptoms. In all cases the direction of change was positive, while Cohen's d calculated showed that the effect of the intervention for these parameters ranged from intermediate to large.Conclusion: Changes on the above anthropometric, fitness and quality of life measures suggest that the intervention was of value to the participating women recovering from breast cancer. Results also advocate collaborative efforts across countries to further research.
Highlights
Breast CancerBreast cancer impacts over two million women each year with global rates increasing rapidly (Global Cancer Observatory, 2018)
Unlike other studies on dance for Parkinson’s disease (Hackney and Earhart, 2010; Duncan and Earhart, 2012) for example, we found no changes in balance measures
Results from this study shows that the Dancing with Health programme had both physical benefits on anthropometric measures and fitness levels, as well as psychosocial benefits for women with breast cancer
Summary
Breast cancer impacts over two million women each year with global rates increasing rapidly (Global Cancer Observatory, 2018). It is the most prevalent type of cancer in women, with women in developed countries having the highest incidences. For some countries’ mortality rates have remained stable (e.g., Lithuania and Bulgaria), whilst for others there have been decreased (e.g., UK, the Netherlands, and Italy) (Autier et al, 2010) These changes on mortality rates may have been the result of public measurements (e.g., self-exams and screening mammograms performed annually after women reach their 40’s) that have been promoted in the last decades to detect an early development of breast cancer. Dancing with Health is multi-site pilot study that aimed to evaluate a dance programme for women in recovery from breast cancer across five European countries
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