Dance to Health achieves better outcomes than the primary falls prevention programme

Executive summary

Aesop set out to create an exemplar 'aesop' - an arts intervention which responds to a major health challenge and is of consistent quality, evidence-based from a health point of view, effective, cost-effective, sustainable and scalable.

The chosen major health challenge was older people's falls and problems with some current falls prevention exercise programmes. The proposed solution, Dance to Health, smuggles evidence-based exercise programmes into creative, social and engaging dance activity.

The Pilot Programme included bridge-building between the worlds of dance and older people's exercise, training of dance artists, six evidence-based falls prevention programmes with 196 participants, sharing/celebration events and an evaluation programme.

The key results were:

• A 7-item checklist of required ingredients for an arts programme to be taken up by the health system and made available to every patient who could benefit.
• The worlds of dance and older people's exercise can be brought together.
• Dance artists can be trained in the evidence-based falls prevention programmes.
• Two groups were inspected for fidelity to the evidence-based programmes. Fidelity was confirmed.
• The final programme had a waiting list and 73% of participants achieved the target of 5 hours' attendance over the six months. The national average for completing standard falls prevention exercise programmes is 31% for primary prevention and 46% for secondary prevention.
• Increases were achieved in dance interest and ability, group identification, relationships and reduced loneliness, functional health and wellbeing, and mental health and wellbeing. A few elements were statistically significant. These outcomes should continue to be measured as Dance to Health develops.
• Dance to Health is capable of generating better outcomes and being associated with lower overall costs of managing falls compared to the primary prevention programme or no intervention.
• Five principles established for involving older people:
  • listening to participants
  • achieving a measurable transfer of power to participants
  • outcomes defined by the participants and co-produced with them
  • the outcomes are describable by the participants
  • participants are involved in assessing the achievement of outcomes
• Dance to Health has been codified in preparation for scaling
• Research by Middlesex University Business School identified ten success factors for Dance to Health's financial sustainability.
• A business model for early-stage roll-out was devised. This consists of an evidence-based 'Improvement Programme' which is funded by the health sector and an ongoing 'Maintenance Programme' which is locally sustainable.
• Translating the evidence-based falls prevention programmes was an enjoyable challenge for dance artists. Without this it would be difficult to see Dance to Health growing; if delivering Dance to Health is boring, dance artists are likely to be reluctant to contribute.

Image courtesy of Aesop © Helen Murray

Download the evaluation report to read on:
Dance to Health: evaluation of the pilot programme (PDF)