] have provided evidence to suggest that interventions using educational programs, skill-building, cognitive behavioral techniques and support EPZ-5676 site groups may provide benefits. Limitations of this research include the relatively small sample size, the smaller proportion of men in the get WP1066 narcolepsy group and the age of the data. In addition, the control group was largely recruited by participants with narcolepsy and this could have affected the results. However, one could expect that in this case less significant differences between groups would be seen. Finally, there may be other variables not included in our analyses that could affect functioning in young adults with narcolepsy. Besides the likelihood that this is the first published study of stigma in people with narcolepsy, strengths of this research include the use of well-established measures, a control group, and adequate sample size for the analyses. In summary, our data suggest that health-related stigma is an important determinant of functioning in young adults with narcolepsy. Future work is indicated toward futher characterizing stigma and developing interventions that address various domains of stigma in people with narcolepsy.AcknowledgmentsWe would like to acknowledge the late Sharon L. Merritt, Ed.D R.N, who conceived and directed this study and Charlene Angeles, a student in the Center for Narcolepsy, Sleep and Health Research whose assistance with the data is greatly appreciated.Author ContributionsConceived and designed the experiments: MK BB BV. Performed the experiments: MK SV. Analyzed the data: MK SV. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: DC. Wrote the paper: MK BV BP DC.
Health experts constantly face the challenge of how to increase physical fitness and psychological wellbeing. Dancing can provide a strenuous but enjoyable way of exercising that can improve people’s level of fitness and to encourage a more active lifestyle. Dance is an activity that promotes fitness and improves aerobic and physical working capacity [1, 2]. Furthermore, there is much evidence to support the benefits of dancing including improvements in psychological wellbeing [3, 4], increased self-esteem [5], and anxiety reduction [6]. According to a recent study conducted on a nationally representative sample of the United States dancing is a common activity among adolescents, with a past-month prevalence rate of 20.9 [7]. However, we know very little about why people continue or discontinue to dance, or why dancing is chosen as a recreational sporting activity.PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0122866 March 24,1 /Dance Motivation InventoryExercise is `a sub-category of physical activity, that is planned structured purposeful and repetitive and has as a final or an intermediate objective which is the improvement or maintenance of physical fitness’ (p. 126.) [8]. Although dance is clearly a form of exercise [9, 10], it differs in a number of aspects. For example, dancing is closely linked to music and mostly requires the presence and physical closeness of a partner as opposed to most other exercise activities. Recent research shows that motivation plays a substantial role in our leisure behaviour. For example, in the case of drinking alcohol, motives such as social, enhancement and coping explain up to 50 of the variance in adolescent alcohol use [11]. Motivation also plays an important (if not determining) role in the case of smoking cigarettes [12, 13] and in the use of ingesting other ps.] have provided evidence to suggest that interventions using educational programs, skill-building, cognitive behavioral techniques and support groups may provide benefits. Limitations of this research include the relatively small sample size, the smaller proportion of men in the narcolepsy group and the age of the data. In addition, the control group was largely recruited by participants with narcolepsy and this could have affected the results. However, one could expect that in this case less significant differences between groups would be seen. Finally, there may be other variables not included in our analyses that could affect functioning in young adults with narcolepsy. Besides the likelihood that this is the first published study of stigma in people with narcolepsy, strengths of this research include the use of well-established measures, a control group, and adequate sample size for the analyses. In summary, our data suggest that health-related stigma is an important determinant of functioning in young adults with narcolepsy. Future work is indicated toward futher characterizing stigma and developing interventions that address various domains of stigma in people with narcolepsy.AcknowledgmentsWe would like to acknowledge the late Sharon L. Merritt, Ed.D R.N, who conceived and directed this study and Charlene Angeles, a student in the Center for Narcolepsy, Sleep and Health Research whose assistance with the data is greatly appreciated.Author ContributionsConceived and designed the experiments: MK BB BV. Performed the experiments: MK SV. Analyzed the data: MK SV. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: DC. Wrote the paper: MK BV BP DC.
Health experts constantly face the challenge of how to increase physical fitness and psychological wellbeing. Dancing can provide a strenuous but enjoyable way of exercising that can improve people’s level of fitness and to encourage a more active lifestyle. Dance is an activity that promotes fitness and improves aerobic and physical working capacity [1, 2]. Furthermore, there is much evidence to support the benefits of dancing including improvements in psychological wellbeing [3, 4], increased self-esteem [5], and anxiety reduction [6]. According to a recent study conducted on a nationally representative sample of the United States dancing is a common activity among adolescents, with a past-month prevalence rate of 20.9 [7]. However, we know very little about why people continue or discontinue to dance, or why dancing is chosen as a recreational sporting activity.PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0122866 March 24,1 /Dance Motivation InventoryExercise is `a sub-category of physical activity, that is planned structured purposeful and repetitive and has as a final or an intermediate objective which is the improvement or maintenance of physical fitness’ (p. 126.) [8]. Although dance is clearly a form of exercise [9, 10], it differs in a number of aspects. For example, dancing is closely linked to music and mostly requires the presence and physical closeness of a partner as opposed to most other exercise activities. Recent research shows that motivation plays a substantial role in our leisure behaviour. For example, in the case of drinking alcohol, motives such as social, enhancement and coping explain up to 50 of the variance in adolescent alcohol use [11]. Motivation also plays an important (if not determining) role in the case of smoking cigarettes [12, 13] and in the use of ingesting other ps.
