An Investigation of the Effects of Popping For Parkinson's ® Dance on Mood and Quality of Life of People with Parkinson's

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of one Popping For Parkinson's ® dance session on mood and quality of life of people with Parkinson’s.

Design: This study employed a within-subject repeated measures design.

Participants: Fortyseven people with mild to moderate Parkinson’s participated in the study. Mean age of 68.6 (SD 10.3), mean Parkinson’s stage of 2.0 (SD 1.7).

Setting: The dance intervention took place in four different locations: Hatfield (UK), London (UK), New York City (USA) and Torino (IT).

Interventions: Participants took part in one Popping For Parkinson's ® dance class. The dance class lasted one hour, and it followed the official Popping For Parkinson's ® methodology. The dance style practiced was Popping dance, one of the Hip Hop dance techniques, based on contracting specific muscle groups in perfect synchrony with the tempo and rhythm of the music.

Main Outcome Measures: Mood and quality of life were measured at four time points: immediately before the dance class, immediately after the dance class, 24 hours after the dance class occurred, and one week after the dance class occurred. Questionnaires used to collect data were the Profile Of Mood Scale questionnaire and the Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire.

Results: The mood and quality of life reported by participants significantly improved immediately after the dance intervention, regardless of gender, location, previous dance experience, tremor, DBS surgery or stage of Parkinson’s. The mood and quality of life reported by participants did not show any significant difference compared with baseline both 24 hours and one week after the dance class occurred.

Conclusions: Participating in Popping For Parkinson's ® dance classes improves both mood and perceived quality of life of people with Parkinson’s in the short term. Significant improvements are registered immediately after participation, and they last less than 24 hours.