Effects of Dance Interventions on Cognition, Psycho-Behavioral Symptoms, Motor Functions, and Quality of Life in Older Adult Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review

Abstract

Background: Dance interventions are considered beneficial for older patients with mild cognitive impairment in many aspects. We conducted a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the effects of dance on different aspects (cognitive function, emotions, physical function, and quality of life) of this population.Methods: A systematic search of PubMed, Web of Science, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Embase, American Psychological Association PsycInfo, ProQuest, Scopus, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, the Chinese BioMedical Literature Database, the VIP Database for Chinese Technical Periodicals, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Wanfang Data database was performed. Two reviewers independently assessed the study quality.Results: Fourteen studies were retrieved from the databases for analysis. The pooled results showed that dance interventions significantly improved global cognition (standardized mean difference [SMD] = 0.73, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.47 to 0.99, P < 0.00001), rote memory (mean difference [MD] = −2.12, 95% CI: −4.02 to −0.21, P = 0.03), immediate recall (SMD = 0.54, 95% CI: 0.30 to 0.78, P < 0.0001), delayed recall (SMD = 0.56, 95% CI: 0.26 to 0.86, P = 0.0002) and attention (SMD = 0.38, 95% CI: 0.13 to 0.64, P = 0.003). No significant improvement was found in executive function, language, depression, anxiety, dementia-related behavioral symptoms, motor function, and quality of life.Conclusion: Dance interventions benefit most aspects of cognitive functions. The evidence for the effects of dance on psycho-behavioral symptoms, motor function and quality of life remains unclear. More trials with rigorous study designs are necessary to provide this evidence.

Dance movement therapy for neurodegenerative diseases: A systematic review

“…The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and Function and Cognitive Assessment Test (FUCAS) were used to assess the global cognitive level of MCI patients. Three high-quality systemic and meta-analysis studies (Chan et al, 2020 ; Liu et al, 2021 ; Wu et al, 2021 ) reported that global cognitive function remarkably increased when older adults with MCI practiced dance compared with the control group [Wu et al ( 2021 ), SMD = 0.54, Z = 3.55, p < 0.001; Liu et al ( 2021 ), SMD = 0.73, 95%CI = 0.47 to 0.99, p < 0.001; Chan et al ( 2020 ), SMD = 0.48, 95%CI = 0.21 to 0.74]. The meta-analysis results of Wu et al ( 2021 ) showed that the efficacy of DMT on the MMSE is related to the overall duration of intervention.…”

“…The Verbal Fluency F-A-S Test (FAS) and Mississippi Aphasia Screening Test (MAST) are the commonly used language-cognition assessment tools. The results of three meta-analyses demonstrated that DMT positively enhances the verbal fluency in MCI patients (Liu et al, 2021 ; Wu et al, 2021 ). Two meta-analyses confirmed that DMT can improve in the visuospatial function of patients with MCI (Chan et al, 2020 ; Wu et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Immediate and delayed recall was commonly used to assess participant's memory ability. Five systematic reviews and meta-analyses confirmed that DMT significantly improved memory ability in MCI patients (Chan et al, 2020;Zhu et al, 2020;Liu et al, 2021;Wu et al, 2021). Among the seven (Cross et al, 2012;Doi et al, 2017;Lazarou et al, 2017;Zhu et al, 2018;Kropacova et al, 2019;Qi et al, 2019;Rektorova et al, 2020) included RCTs, two employed Digit Span Task (DST) (Zhu et al, 2018;Qi et al, 2019), one (Lazarou et al, 2017) used Rey Osterrieth Complex Figure Test copy and delay recall (RAVLT) and Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test-1 (RBMT-1), and others used word memory (Doi et al, 2017) to assess the immediate memory recall.…”

“…Various neuroimaging studies of dance observation showed that DMT can improve the neuronal connectivity in specific brain regions of older participants' brain, promote neuroplasticity, and induce changes in gray and white matter in multiple brain regions, especially the frontotemporal region. Previous studies suggested DMT as a rehabilitation tool of disease management and clinical improvement for patients with AD (Mabire et al, 2019 ; Ruiz-Muelle and López-Rodríguez, 2019 ), MCI (Liu et al, 2021 ; Wang et al, 2021 ; Wu et al, 2021 ), and PD (Barnish and Barran, 2020 ; Berti et al, 2020 ; Carapellotti et al, 2020 ; de Almeida et al, 2020 ; Emmanouilidis et al, 2021 ; Ismail et al, 2021 ). The pooled results of the latest meta-analysis of the efficacy of DMT in PD patients showed that DMT can improve motor function and reduce the burden on caregivers (Emmanouilidis et al, 2021 ; Ismail et al, 2021 ).…”

“…The metaanalysis findings of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and non-RCTs reported the positive effects of DMT in improving the motor, cognitive, and psychological functions in patients with AD (Ruiz-Muelle and López-Rodríguez, 2019). Among the studies on the dance treatment of MCI, many systematic reviews and meta-analyses confirmed that DMT can improves memory and other cognitive function, psychological function, and quality of life (Zhu et al, 2020;Liu et al, 2021;Wu et al, 2021).…”