This study explored the effectiveness of dance movement therapy (DMT) in obese women with emotional eating who were trying to lose weight. 158 women were recruited from a commercial weight loss programme: 92 with BMI ≥ 28 were identified as emotional eaters and divided into: an exercise control (n = 32) and non-exercisers (n = 60). The non-exercises were partially randomised to non exercise control (n = 30) and treatment group (n = 30). Using a pre- and post-intervention design, 24 of the DMT treatment group, 28 of the exercise control and 27 of the non-exercise control completed all measures on a battery of tests for psychological distress, body image distress, self-esteem and emotional eating. Findings were analysed for statistical significance.
The DMT group showed statistically decreased psychological distress, decreased body image distress, and increased self-esteem compared to controls. Emotional eating reduced in DMT and exercise groups. The authors cautiously conclude that DMT could form part of a treatment for obese women whose presentation includes emotional eating. Further research is needed with larger, fully, and blindly randomised samples, a group exercise control, longitudinal follow-up, a depression measure, ITT, and cost analyses.
The number of obese people (body mass index (BMI) above 30) is increasing in the whole world. Reducing obesity is thus a global challenge. Worldwide, the number of obese people has more than doubled since 1980 (World Health Organisation, 2011). Data from The National Health and Examination Survey of 2010 confirm that about 1/3 of USA adults (33.8%) and approximately 17% (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents aged 2–19 years are obese (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010). The latest Health Survey for England (Craig & Hirani, 2010) data shows that in 2009, 23.0% of adults and 14.4% of children were obese. The Foresight report, the implications of which are discussed by Aylott, Brown, Copeland, and Johnson (2008) predicted that if no action was taken, more than half of the UK adult population would be obese (60% of men, 50% of women) by 2050. More than one-third of citizens of the European Union (EU) are overweight and one in ten is obese. 400,000 children of school age become overweight each year. Eight per cent of health care expenses are directed towards solutions for the obesity problem (European Parliament, 2008).
Obesity can have a severe impact on people's health, increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease (Craig & Hirani, 2010), elevated blood cholesterol levels, stroke; and after the menopause cancer of the breast and uterus, osteoporosis and joint problems (Twigg, 2006, chap. 6). The number of Finished Admission Episodes (FAEs) in NHS hospitals with a primary diagnosis of obesity amongst people of all ages in 2008/09 was over eight times as high as in 1998/99 and nearly 60% higher than in 2007/08 (NHS, 2010). Consequences of obesity are not just physical; quality of life of obese persons is reduced, because obesity impacts on physical, emotional and social functioning. There is also a significant burden on health and social services; whilst precise predictions have been disputed, there is little doubt that without effective action most societies will continue to bear an increasing cost due to a greater prevalence of chronic diseases arising from obesity.
