Effects of Music and Dance on Cognition, Frailty, and Burden in Elderly Caregivers Living in Rural Communities

Summary

This research aims to analyze the effects of senior dance on the cognition, frailty, and burden in elderly caregivers of rural communities. This is a randomized clinical trial to be conducted with a sample of 58 elderly caregivers residing in rural communities. Data collection will be performed in the homes of the elderly and/or in the dependencies of the Family Health units (USFs - primary health care systems). They will answer Socio-demographic characterization instrument, ACE-R Battery, and electroencephalography for cognitive evaluation, five Fragility criteria proposed by Fried et al and Zarit Burden Inventory. The dance protocol will be applied to the experimental group (n=29) in the USFs and the control group (n=29) will receive health care, including guidance on health care and practices. The protocols include 24 interventions, 60 minutes each, weekly, during 6 months. Analysis of effects comparisons will be conducted between groups and be comparing baseline with final measurements. Dance intervention is expected to exert important positive effects on all study variables (cognitive performance, fragility assessment, and caregiver burden), compared to the group. The intervention of the control group is expected to exert positive effects on some variables of the study (mainly, caregiver burden).

Conditions

• Cognitive Decline
• Memory Loss
• Frail Elderly Syndrome
• Burden, Dependency

Interventions

OTHER

Dance

Sessions of sixty minutes each, which will take place weekly, totaling 24 weeks (6 months). Ten minutes from the start of each session will be reserved for initial exercises, with movements of the upper limbs, lower, accompanied by a motivational music. The process of identifying and memorizing the movements will be carried out as many times as the group deems necessary. The rhythms include combinations of circular and ballroom dances, including waltz, cha-cha-cha, cancan, among others. In all the sessions, the last fifteen minutes are reserved for a conversation about the dance learned/practiced in the day. It is expected to have reached the proposal of a practice of 15 different choreographies and that this was a pleasant moment for all the participants.

OTHER

Health care guidance

Control group will receive attention, through guidelines for care and health practices for the caregiver and the elderly care recipient. This attention should occur in the same number of sessions of the dance and group intervention group. The control group should follow the same subdivision of the intervention group, in terms of the number of participants per subgroup. The subjects of the guidelines will be raised by the demand of the participants themselves and then worked in an interdisciplinary way.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Allan G Brigola, Ph.D. · Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

60 Years

Max Age

100 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2017-10-01

Primary Completion

2018-10-01

Completion

2018-10-01

Countries

• Brazil

Study Locations