The effect of dance therapy on quality of life, fatigue, body perception and depression in obese women

Obesity is a health problem that manifests itself with weight gain, brings with it many systemic diseases and affects human health. This study was planned to investigate the effect of dancetherapy on quality of life, fatigue, body perception and depression in obese women. 39 volunteer obese women (mean age 38.15 ± 14.14) participated in our study. The individual sparticipating in the study were divided in to two groups as exercise group and control group by simple randomized method. Dancetherapy exercises were applied to the exercise group (19 people) for 8 weeks, 3 days a week. No exercise program was applied to the control group (20 people). Participants were evaluated with before and after treatment with Fatigue Severity Scale for fatigue, Short Form 36 (SF-36) for quality of life, Obese-Specific Quality of Life Scale for quality of life, Beck Depression Scale for depression, Body Image Scale for body perception. Significant improvement in quality of life, except for some parameters of SF-36, was observed in the exercise group before and after treatment (p <0.05). Considering the evaluations between the groups, as a result of the body composition and fatigue assessment, there were improvements in favor of the exercise group. This study revealed that dance therapy in obese women increases the quality of life, reduces fatigue, decreases the level of depression, and increases body perception. This showed that dance therapy can be an effective and therapeutic component in obesity rehabilitation and can be used as an aerobic exercise.