Title
Exploratory study on the effectiveness of learning one dance step per day in the workplace to improve subjective physical and mental well-being.
Purpose
Investigation of the power of minimal exercise involving a small cognitive challenge to change subjective physical and mental well-being.
Design
Responses to a well-being questionnaire were compared before and after 4 weeks of learning a new dance step a day.
Setting
Staff from a Faculty of Health Sciences at a Western Australian University were invited to learn a new dance step delivered in video format by email each working day.
Subjects
13.8% staff signed up, 2% male, 98% female, age range 24-69 (average 47.5).
Intervention
Before and after the intervention, subjects filled in the same online well-being questionnaire. Each morning Monday-Friday they received by e-mail a demonstration video lasting 2 minutes. Optional daily lunchtime practice sessions were available for 10-15 minutes in a meeting room.
Analysis
Of 100 volunteers, 44 filled in both pre- and post-study questionnaires; their data was compared using paired student’s t-test.
Results
On a scale of 1-5, subjects evaluated their physical health at 3.00 before and 3.34 after the intervention (+11.3% p=0.0001), their mental health at 3.20 before and 3.50 after the intervention (+9.4%, p=0.0001). In an evaluation of 16 symptoms linked to anxiety and depression, the average score was significantly improved for 9; the remainder showed non-significant improvements).
Conclusion
Dance provides physical and mental stimulation such that minimal activity, i.e. learning one step/day, can significantly improve subjective physical and mental well-being. A device to monitor dance practice duration would enable finer analysis of the specificity of dance effects in a larger population.