Scoping Review of Dance for Adults With Fibromyalgia: What Do We Know About It?

Abstract

BackgroundFibromyalgia is a chronic disorder characterized by widespread muscular tenderness, pain, fatigue, and cognitive difficulties. Nonpharmacological treatment options, such as physical activity, are important for people with fibromyalgia. There are strong recommendations to support engagement in physical activity for symptom management among adults with fibromyalgia. Dance is a mode of physical activity that may allow individuals with fibromyalgia to improve their physical function, health, and well-being. Dance has the potential to promote improved pain processing while simultaneously providing the health and social benefits of engaging in physical activity that contributes to symptom management and overall function rehabilitation. However, we are unaware of current evidence on dance as a nonpharmacological/physical activity intervention for adults with fibromyalgia.ObjectiveThe aims of this study were to understand how dance is used therapeutically by individuals with fibromyalgia; to examine the extent, range and nature of research activity in the area; and to determine the value of undertaking a systematic review of interventions.MethodsWe used and adapted the Arksey and O’Malley scoping framework. The search strategy involved a comprehensive search of main health and electronic social databases, trial registries and grey literature without language limits. Pairs of reviewers independently screened and extracted data and evaluated the methodological quality of randomized control trials.ResultsTwenty-one unique records for 13 studies met inclusion criteria; the studies included mostly middle-aged women. Types of dance included were aerobic dance, belly dance, dance movement therapy, biodanza and Zumba. Intervention parameters were different among studies. Frequency varied between one to three times a week; all were done in small group settings. Studies evaluated a variety of outcomes in the symptoms, wellness, psychosocial, physical functioning, balance and fitness categories; no studies evaluated the safety or adverse events systematically which is a major weakness of the literature.ConclusionsThere are few studies in the field of dance and fibromyalgia, suggesting research is in its infancy but slowly growing. They are of European and South American origin, focusing on female participants and a limited number of dance modes. Because the body of literature is small, of low quality and highly heterogeneous, we concluded that a systematic review of interventions on dance is not warranted at this time.

Effects of Dance on Pain in Patients with Fibromyalgia: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis

“…To the best of our knowledge, there is no systematic review of the literature on the effectiveness of dance-based programs in patients with fibromyalgia [ 23 ]. Only one scoping review has been published in this area.…”

Danza terapéutica y ejercicio físico. Efecto sobre la fibromialgia

“…En cuanto al uso de la danza como herramienta complementaria al tratamiento de la FM las evidencias científicas que se reportan son escasas; así lo confirma Bidonde et al (47) quien producto de una revisión sistemática sobre el uso de la danza en adultos con FM encontró que hay pocos estudios, de baja calidad y altamente heterogéneos, lo que representa un vacío importante en la literatura de hoy. En la búsqueda se encuentran descritas técnicas como danza-terapia (48) y danza-movimiento-terapia -DMT-, métodos que han sido aplicados en el campo de la salud mental y la discapacidad principalmente.…”

Zumba dancing and aerobic exercise can improve working memory, motor function, and depressive symptoms in female patients with Fibromyalgia

“…Symptoms of FM often impair individuals’ quality of life, for instance via their negative impact on cognitive functioning (Bidonde et al, 2018). Studies have shown that working memory (Galvez et al, 2018) and attention control (Bidonde et al, 2018) are significantly reduced among patients with FM. Previous studies have shown that working memory is one of several cognitive functions that decline with advancing FM symptoms (Bartkowska, Samborski, & Mojs, 2018).…”

“…Symptoms of FM often impair individuals’ quality of life, for instance via their negative impact on cognitive functioning (Bidonde et al, 2018). Studies have shown that working memory (Galvez et al, 2018) and attention control (Bidonde et al, 2018) are significantly reduced among patients with FM.…”