<div>Title</div><div>Exploratory study on the effectiveness of learning one dance step per
day in the workplace to improve subjective physical and mental
well-being.</div><div>Purpose</div><div>Investigation of the power of minimal exercise involving a small
cognitive challenge to change subjective physical and mental well-being.</div><div>Design</div><div>Responses to a well-being questionnaire were compared before and after 4
weeks of learning a new dance step a day.</div><div>Setting</div><div>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.</div><div>Subjects</div><div>13.8% staff signed up, 2% male, 98% female, age range 24-69 (average
47.5).</div><div>Intervention</div><div>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.</div><div>Analysis</div><div>Of 100 volunteers, 44 filled in both pre- and post-study questionnaires;
their data was compared using paired student’s t-test.</div><div>Results</div><div>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).</div><div>Conclusion</div><div>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.</div>