Community-based dance classes for healthy ageing and fall prevention: pilot trial outcomes and recommendations

Hi there, thanks for your question! You are absolutely right, it does require a lot of skill - the teachers all have many years of dance teaching experience, as well as extra training in healthy ageing and fall prevention, as it relates to dance, so are skilled at observing the participants and providing modifications as needed. For example, a modification might be creating a "chair corridor" like you can see in the little picture in the poster on the right-hand side, or just taking an increased number of rest breaks, depending on the individual. There were no injuries or falls in our intervention group, although our eligibility criteria included being able to walk 10m unaided, so our participants were reasonably mobile. In the "real" world the dance teachers we are working with run either 2 or 3 different levels of class, for more agile v those with mobility issues, which also makes it a bit easier if everyone is at a similar level. 

All great questions, thanks for asking! All the dance teachers in our pilot trial had several years dance experience and had also done 2 modules of training with Gold Moves Australia - "leading dance for older people for health and wellbeing" and "Introduction to fall prevention through dance" you can find them here: https://goldmovesaustralia.com.au/our-courses/

I am not sure how many dance teachers have completed these courses over the years, but in the grant applications we've submitted we have budgeted on being able to pay our teachers to do these two modules, I don't think we will have any trouble recruiting experienced teachers who are interested. We have talked about running a hybrid type 2 implementation effectiveness trial with falls as the primary outcome measure and the classes would run for 6 months 2 x week. The goal would definitely be to see the program continue running in the community beyond the life of the trial - this has happened already in our pilot trial, but the participants now cover the cost themselves. In a perfect world we would like to find venues/organisations to partner with that will subsidise the classes - definitely something we will be exploring.

Hi there, thanks for your questions and interest. The classes are multi-genre, and teachers use a range of different styles and techniques, with the choice of sequences being determined to a large extent by the group - the teacher surveys the participants at the start of term about their experience, ability and, importantly, their music preferences, and then they design it from there. The teachers will increase the balance and strength challenge of the class as the term progresses and may change the program if something isn't working or isn't popular - it is very adaptable and different groups have different needs and preferences. The classes are low impact; with both the slow controlled movements you describe and faster components with direction changing, and there is a lot of tailoring within the classes too, to make sure each of the participants are being challenged to the best of their ability. This adaptability does make it well suited to people of various mobility levels and with pain conditions as they are encouraged to pace and work within their limits. Within our trial there were no dropouts related to pain or reduced mobility, but of course people with these conditions might be less inclined to sign up in the first place, although they would be well catered for if they did.

Thank you! The pilot trial was held in Southeastern Queensland, an area of Australia without much ethnic diversity so our study participants were nearly all white, but the "essential ingredients" we have identified (bottom right in the poster) should be easily adapted to different contexts. One of our next steps is now to have experienced teachers from different cultural backgrounds and dancing traditions do the same teacher training and adapt it for their own audience to see how it is received.

I know, I couldn't agree more!