Abstract Obesity being associated with several risk factors increases the morbidity and mortality rate, which in turn increases the health care cost. Hence to combat this challenge it requires immediate public health intervention. On the other hand regular exercise in the form of dancing plays an important role in maintaining good health. In this backdrop the present study aims to assess the impact of Kathak dancing on adult female individuals of Kolkata.
31 adult female individuals receiving dancing training for minimum 5 years and practicing regularly for a period of at least one hour for 6 days in a week constituted the Kathak dancing group (KDG). The non-dancing group or the Control Group (CG) had 37 female individuals of comparable age and socio-economic background but not receiving training in any form of dance or exercise. The obesity indices of the individuals were also calculated for both the groups to compare their obesity status. It has been observed that training in Kathak dancing has significantly (P < 0.05) favorable impact on the measured anthropometric and body composition parameters compared to the age and sex matched counterparts. It could therefore be concluded that Kathak dancing is a beneficial way of exercising which has specific beneficial impact on maintaining favorable body composition variables, adjudged anthropometrically, in adult Bengali females and can serve as a potential tool for the desired healthy living agenda.
Keywords: Kathak Dancing; Anthropometry; Central Obesity; Public Health; Anthropometry.