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Greek Traditional Dance as a Practice for Managing Stress and Anxiety in Cancer Patients

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Abstract

Stress and anxiety levels in cancer patients tend to decrease by performing bodily-kinesthetic and musical activities. The hypothesis of the present study is that attending lessons in Greek traditional dance is an effective method for managing anxiety and stress in patients diagnosed with cancer of any type both during and after treatment. The study was conducted on 300 cancer patients (150 experimental subjects, 150 controls) selected by Attica hospitals and nonprofit cancer patients’ organizations. Each patient in the experimental group attended an 8-week Greek traditional dance lesson program. Lessons were held twice per week, lasting 60 min each. A similar group of cancer patients not participating in any organized physical activity during the same time period served as a control group. Data were collected using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale 21 (Dass-21) questionnaire and subjected to reliability analysis (Cronbach’s alpha) and deviation-dependent analysis (one-way repeated). Both stress and anxiety values decreased significantly in the experimental group (stress value: initial mean = 16.27, second mean = 2.58, final mean = 6.77, p < 0.001; anxiety value: initial mean = 15.59, second mean = 2.81, final mean = 5.35, p < 0.001). In contrast, no significant fluctuation was observed in the control group. Thus, there was a significant decrease in stress and anxiety values in cancer patients who attended Greek traditional dances lessons with important psychotherapeutic significance.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all the staff at Attica hospitals and nonprofit cancer patients’ organizations in Athens for their assistance with this study.

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The authors have full control of all primary data and agree to allow the journal to review all data if requested.

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The research was not supported by any form of funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physical Education & Sport Sciences, Democritus University of Thrace, Komotini, Greece

    Ioanna Karathanou, E. Bebetsos & F. Filippou

  2. School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Attica, Athens, Greece

    A. Psirri

  3. National School of Public Health, University of Western Attica, Athens, Greece

    I. Konas

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  1. Ioanna Karathanou
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Karathanou Ioanna, Bebetsos Euaggelos, Filippou Filippos, Psirri Amanda, and Konas Ioannis. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Karathanou Ioanna, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ioanna Karathanou.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict interest.

Ethics Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. In particular, this research study was approved by the Research Ethics Committees of involved Attica hospitals (2016/21616/251 Air Force General Hospital, 2017/28/General Cancer Hospital of Kifisia “The Saints Anargyroi” and 2019/6924/Sotiria General Hospital of Athens) and the General Assembly of Democritus University of Thrace (2015/186/Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Science).

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Karathanou, I., Bebetsos, E., Filippou, F. et al. Greek Traditional Dance as a Practice for Managing Stress and Anxiety in Cancer Patients. J Canc Educ 36, 1269–1276 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-020-01761-x

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