Image of male nurse pushing senior woman in a wheelchair in nursing facility

Seniors who undergo “dance therapy” typically have improved levels of balance and gait, as well as overall functionality, which helps to reduce their risk of falls, according to new research. 

Nursing and eldercare professionals can use dance-based therapies to reduce falls among older patients, suggest researchers at the University of Missouri. For their study, researchers used a dance-therapy program called The Lebed Method (TLM), which includes choreographed low-impact dance steps set to music. A group of 11 seniors in St. Louis participated in a six-week pilot study of the program.

More than half the seniors involved in the program reported improvements in gait and balance, according to the results of the study, which was recently published in the journal Nursing Administration Quarterly.