Dance for Adults With Fibromyalgia-What Do We Know About It? Protocol for a Scoping Review

Fibromyalgia is a chronic disorder characterized by widespread muscular tenderness, pain, fatigue, and cognitive difficulties. Nonpharmacological treatment options, such as physical activity, are important for people with fibromyalgia. There are strong recommendations to support engagement in physical activity for symptom management among adults with fibromyalgia. Dance is a mode of physical activity that may allow individuals with fibromyalgia to improve their physical function, health, and well-being. Dance has the potential to promote improved pain processing while simultaneously providing the health and social benefits of engaging in physical activity that contributes to symptom management. However, we are unaware of current evidence on dance as a nonpharmacological/physical activity intervention for adults with fibromyalgia.

The aims of the study are to provide an overview of the extant evidence to understand how dance is used for individuals with fibromyalgia; to examine the extent, range, and nature of research activity in the area; and to determine the value of undertaking a full systematic review.

Scoping reviews are useful to comprehensively and systematically map the literature and identify key evidence, or research gaps. The search strategy will involve electronic databases including Medline, Embase, Cochrane Library, PsycInfo, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Literature in the Health Sciences in Latin America and the Caribbean (LILACS), Allied and Complementary Medicine (AMED), International Bibliography of Theatre and Dance, Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro), Trip, Proquest Theses/Dissertations, Web of Science, World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, and ClinicalTrials.gov. The study will be mapped in seven stages: (1) identifying the research questions, (2) identifying relevant studies, (3) selecting the studies, (4) charting the data, (5) collating, summarizing and reporting the results, (6) consulting, and (7) disseminating the knowledge.

The search, title, and abstract are now completed; full text screening was carried out and authors are awaiting interlibrary loans and translations. Data extraction will start shortly after full text 'screening' is completed. Completion is expected in Fall 2017.

To our knowledge this will be the first attempt to systematically identify knowledge of dance as a potential intervention for adults with fibromyalgia. This scoping review offers a feasible means for describing the evidence specific to dance and fibromyalgia; results will provide unique insights concerning the breadth and depth of literature in the area. An analysis of this body of literature as a whole may reveal new research directions or unknown ways this intervention could strengthen current management approaches of the disease.