What this means
Researchers compared mood and physical tests in dancers and inactive women. Longer dance time was linked to better movement tests, but this does not prove dance caused the gains.
Plain-English summary written by an AI model from the abstract. The original is below.
- Who it was tested in
- 160 women, including 66 senior dancers, 34 dancers who also exercised, and 60 inactive women
- Kind of research
- A study
The science
- Original title
- Association of Senior Dance Participation with Mental Well-Being and Functional Performance in Older Women: A Cross-Sectional Study.
- Authors
- Lakó B, Simon A, Kubik AZ et al.
- Journal
- Journal of clinical medicine
- Published
- Oct 16, 2026
- Study type
- Study
- PMID
- 42882148 ↗
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Community-based activities supporting physical function and mental well-being are increasingly relevant in later life. This cross-sectional study compared mental well-being and physical outcomes among older women participating in senior dance only, senior dance plus additional regular physical activity, and physically inactive older groups; a younger inactive group provided exploratory age-related context. A secondary aim was to examine correlations with participation duration. Methods: Participants were 160 women: 66 in senior dance only (SD), 34 in senior dance plus additional regular physical activity (SD+PA), 30 physically inactive older women, and 30 physically inactive younger women aged 25-40 years. Mental well-being was assessed with the Hungarian four-response five-item Well-Being Index (WBI-5), together with seven physical outcomes. Welch's ANOVA and prespecified Welch-Satterthwaite contrasts with Benjamini-Hochberg correction were used; duration analyses used partial Spearman correlations adjusted for weekly attendance and age. Results: Overall group differences were observed for all outcomes (all p ≤ 0.002). Seven outcomes remained significant in Contrast 1, which did not isolate a dance-specific association. No SD versus SD+PA difference remained significant after correction. Within SD, participation duration correlated with more favorable Timed Up and Go (rs = -0.428), 30-Second Chair Stand (rs = 0.425), and 2-Minute Step Test performance (rs = 0.423; all q = 0.0013). The adjusted WBI-5 correlation did not remain significant after FDR correction (rs = 0.271; q = 0.061). Conclusions: Participation duration was most consistently correlated with integrated functional performance. Prospective studies are required; causal effects cannot be inferred. ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT07170241.
Lakó B, Simon A, Kubik AZ et al. Association of Senior Dance Participation with Mental Well-Being and Functional Performance in Older Women: A Cross-Sectional Study. Journal of clinical medicine. 2026. doi:10.3390/jcm15197687. PMID: 42882148. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42882148/