A EU collaborative partnership for active lifestyles for the prevention and treatment of breast cancer- DANCING WITH HEALTH

DANCING WITH HEALTH is multi-site pilot study that aimed to evaluate a dance programme for women in recovery from breast cancer across five European countries: Italy Bulgaria, Lithuania, The Netherlands and UK. The project thus wanted to:-develop and promote an innovative dance protocol for breast cancer survivors and women who were still in treatment to involve them in a moderate / vigorous phisycal activity and as a consequence, to better their quality of life (in physiological and psychological terms).A standardised 32-hour dance protocol introduced a range of Latin American dances within a sports and exercise framework with influences from dance movement therapy. 70 women, average age 53, participated in the study who have had breast cancer diagnosis < three years, chemotherapy > 6 weeks and no indication of metastasis or scheduled surgery/chemotherapy/radiation treatment for the duration of the intervention. Primary outcome data was collected for anthropometric and fitness measures next to cancer-related quality of life. All evaluation measures were taken pre and post intervention.-train dance and exercise professionals with specific skills in the participating countries in order to standardize the protocol and make it transferable and replicable also in other contexts and countries. The training has been organized using the train the trainers methodology in order to trigger a cascade effect and involve more operators in the sector.An international training course was organized in Rome (Italy) with the participation of 3 trainers from each project country.The training course duration was of 16 hours over the week end in order to overcome problems of overlapping with work duties of participants. The 16 hours training were 4 theoretical + 10 practical + 2 of evaluation.-organize multipliers events open to the public to inform them about the project and of other topics as the Importance of physical activity for the maintenance of health status; Physical activity in the prevention and treatment of diseases; Dance and its psychological and physiological effects; Breast Cancer and Exercise.During the project implementation, 3 different intellectual outputs have been developed with the contribution from all the project partners, namely:IO1 - Training materials (manual) for health and sport professionals and dance teachers/therapists;IO2 - Manual about the application of the dance protocol and its results;IO3 - Analysis of the results of the application of the protocol /Publication of a Scientific paper.Besides, in the framework of the dissemination activities, the project logo to create the project visual identity, the project website in English to present the trainers, the intellectual outputs (for free download) and other information about the project and a final brochure presenting project’s results have been created/developed.