Older Women Who Dance Are Less Likely to Lose Their Independence

A study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science found older women who dance are 73 percent less likely to need help with routine tasks such as bathing, dressing, and eating, reports London's The Daily Mail . The researchers monitored more than 1,000 women aged 75 to 84 for eight years, and while participants took part in 16 different types of exercise, dance was the only one linked to better daily life skills. Women who danced were found to be less likely to have a disability in which they required partial or total help with activities of daily living (ADL). Only dancing reduced women's risk of needing help with walking, eating, bathing, dressing, and using the bathroom. "Although it is unclear why dancing alone reduced the risk of ADL disability, dancing requires not only balance, strength, and endurance ability, but also cognitive ability — adaptability and concentration to move according to the music and partner, artistry for graceful and fluid motion, and memory for choreography," said the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology's Yosuke Osuka. "We think that these various elements may contribute to the superiority of dancing in maintaining a higher ADL capacity." The study authors noted earlier research suggests "dancing is a more useful exercise for maintaining brain structure and balance ability in older adults compared to walking, strength, and flexibility exercise."