BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Dance intervention, as a non-pharmacological ther-apy, has shown promising potential in alleviating menopausal symptoms among peri-menopausal, menopausal, and postmenopausal women. However, a systematic evaluation of its overall effectiveness based on existing trials remains unavailable. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of dance intervention on health-related outcomes in peri-menopausal, menopausal, and postmenopausal women through a systematic review and meta-analysis. METHODS: This study systematically searched the relevant databases on 18 October 2024. The risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane RoB 2 and ROBINS-I tools. Meta-analysis was performed using Review Manager version 5.4. software. For results unsuitable for meta-analysis, narrative synthesis was conducted. The study was reg-istered in PROSPERO (number: CRD42024613134). RESULTS: Meta-analysis demonstrated significant positive effects of dance intervention on psychological symptoms, including depression (I2 87%, p < 0.001), anxiety (I2 90%, p = 0.01), vitality (I2 0%, p = 0.03), interpersonal relationships (I2 0%, p < 0.001), and somatization (I2 85%, p = 0.01), in menopausal women, but no significant impact was observed on psychotic symptoms (I2 89%, p = 0.33). However, the high heterogeneity suggests the presence of potential confounding factors among studies. Sensitivity analysis indicated that the flexibility of the intervention protocol and intra-group differences among participants may have been the main sources of heterogeneity. Further subgroup analysis revealed that interventions conducted less than three times per week had significant effects on depressive symptoms (SMD -1.93), while a total intervention duration of <= 1800 min significantly improved anxiety symptoms (SMD -2.15). CONCLUSIONS: Dance interventions have significant positive effects on health-related outcomes in perimenopausal, menopausal, and post-menopausal women, except for psychotic symptoms, offering a promising intervention option for clinical practice.

Full text (sometimes free) may be available at these link(s):      help

• PubMed Central
• DOI
• PubMed
• PDF locator
• publisher