Community Dance Program (CDP) for Older Adults

Objectives:

The primary objective of the proposed project is to develop and evaluate a Community Dance Program (CDP) for community-dwelling older adults, which is aimed at promoting physical strength, balance, cognition, mental and psycho-social well-being of the older adults. A distinctive feature of our project is that a team of researchers across disciplines and community partners will collaborate to develop the program and bring benefits to the older adults living in the community.

Research Design:

The research design consists of: (1) Development and implementation of CDP. A pilot cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted to assess the feasibility and primary effect of the program in enhancing the physical, mental, cognitive, and psycho-social health, quality of life, and social support among older adults. (2) Process Evaluation, follow-up focus group discussions will be conducted to assess the acceptability, strengths and limitations of CDP based on the participants' perspectives.

Data Collection and Analysis:

A set of questionnaires will be administered to the older adults. The data will be collected at two time points: baseline and 8-week follow-up. Descriptive statistics, Paired sample t-test, Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), General Linear Model (GLM) will be used to examine the difference between the baseline and post-intervention to compare outcome measures from pre to post-implementation. The audio-recorded focused group discussion will be transcribed verbatim respectively. Thematic analysis will be applied to provide an in-depth and rich analysis of the verbatim.

Potential Impact:

CDP will make a positive impact on the older adults' physical, mental and psychological wellbeing. Those impacts will then encourage older adults to live an active life and maximize their social capital within the community. Therefore, CDP promotes the health and wellbeing of the community-dwelling older adults and reduces geriatric-related conditions. The outcome of the study will have tremendous potential to be implemented at a larger scale in the community. Upon completion of the project, the investigators will work closely with community centres and senior activity centres to integrate CDP into their existing programs. CDP could then benefit a larger population given the evidence gathered from this research to enhance the physical, mental and psychological wellbeing of the older adults.

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

* Aged 55 to 85
* Able to understand and communicate in either English or Mandarin
* Able to give consent to participate (have sufficient mental capacity as assessed by the MoCA, with a score of 16 and above)
* Lives within the community setting
* Able to ambulate with minimal assistance
* Able to commit a total of 8 hours over the 8-week period dancing program

Exclusion Criteria:

* Medical conditions which result in limitation of dancing
* Older adults with compromised balance and mobility (those who obtained a score of \< 5 on the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB)
* Severe cognitive or psychiatric disorders
* Severe hearing or vision impairments
* Older adults from the control group who also participate in any other dance group during the intervention period
* Older adults who are uncomfortable with video-recording of the dance sessions