Effects of a 12-week aerobic dance programme on diastolic blood pressure in stage one hypertensive adults

Abstract

Hypertension which impacts over 1.5 billion people globally is a crucial health challenge accountable for more than 10.8 million early deaths yearly. Our study used an experimental design to investigate the effects of aerobic dance programme on diastolic blood pressure levels in stage one hypertensive adults over a 12-week period. The study participants were randomly allocated into either the experimental or control groups. Diastolic blood pressure measurements were collected using a mercury sphygmomanometer at baseline and post programme. The 12-week aerobic dance programme entailed three 45-minute sessions per week, at a moderate intensity. The paired samples t-test was used to compare mean differences within the groups with the significance level set at P<0.05. Findings showed that mean diastolic blood pressure of participants in the experimental group was 93.11±3.708 mmHg and 91.61±4.340 mmHg at baseline and post programme while that of the control group was 92.39±3.032 mmHg and 92.06±6.655 mmHg respectively. This implies that there was a marginal reduction of -1.50 mmHg in diastolic blood pressure of the experimental group while the control group remained relatively constant at -0.33mmHg after the programme. Paired sample t-test results confirmed no statistically significant effects (t(17)=1.129, p=.275) for experimental group as well as the control group (t(17)=.257, p=.800). This study concluded that participating in an aerobic dance programme at a moderate intensity for 12 weeks did not statistically significantly reduce diastolic blood pressure of adults with stage one hypertension. Future studies on this population should investigate additional influencing factors and varying training intensity to assess any other effects.