The Positively Dance Pilot Program for Women Living With HIV

Women living with HIV (WLWH) are at greater risk of advanced cellular aging, comorbidities, and early mortality than men living with HIV or women in the general population. WLWH face significant social and economic disadvantages which serve as barriers to accessing HIV therapy or other programming that could support their health and wellbeing. It is thus critical to identify amenable healthy aging factors to ameliorate the burden of HIV for WLWH. Aerobic training has consistently been shown to reduce disease risk and early mortality in the general population and in people living with HIV. Immune system function partly underlies many of the cardiovascular, lung, muscular, and neural benefits of aerobic exercise. While sporadic immune activation is typical during innate and adaptive immune responses, the development and pathogenesis of non-communicable diseases are now understood to result from chronic, low-grade, systemic inflammation in the body, known as inflamm-aging as seen among people living with HIV even when their viremia is controlled by therapy. Systemic inflammation results from multiple sources, including, but not limited to, accumulation of fat and immunosenescent cells, the latter of which no longer divide but secrete damaging inflammatory cytokines. Immunosenescent cells are marked by several biomarkers, though most attention has been directed towards average telomere lengths of immune cells. Telomeres are genepoor regions located at the ends of chromosomes and are formed by hexameric 5'(TTAGGG) n3' repeats and shortened telomeres portend earlier replicative senescence - when cells no longer replicate but live on in a pro-inflammatory state - or programmed cellular death. 24 weeks of physical activity is associated with apparent reversal of the aging process of immune cells with increases in average leukocyte (i.e. immune cells) telomere lengths (LTL). While aerobic exercise benefits people living with HIV, a recent review emphasizes that WLWH and adults from minority groups are less likely to engage in or are more likely to withdraw from standard exercise programs. Consultations with The Canadian HIV Sexual and Reproductive Health Cohort Study (CHIWOS) Advisory Board of WLWH identified and prioritized the need for interventional research to mitigate the effects of accelerated aging and decrease the risk of disease, and identified dance as a particularly exciting program to study, if made free and easily accessible. This study will be a 12-week randomized dance pilot program. The dance classes will be led by trained peer dance instructors who are also WLHIV. Prior to consent, participants will be screened for inclusion/exclusion criteria. Next, participants will be invited to an in-person, paid orientation session to review study objectives and discuss the pros/cons to participating in the pilot program and randomization to either a waitlist control or active study arm. After consent, participants will then be asked to complete blood draws and a pre-intervention survey. Each dance instructor (PRA) will lead 1-2 classes (50-min/class) per week (depending on availability) for 12 weeks, with an expectation that women in the pilot's active arm have access to 2 classes per week during the first 12 weeks of active data collection. Classes will be offered in person at a local dance studio. Attendance will be taken at each dance class by throughout the 12 weeks. Participants will also have the opportunity to socialize during breaks after dance classes for as long as they wish for up to half an hour. Following the 12 weeks of active data collection for the pilot program, all participating women will be asked to return to complete blood draws and a repeat survey to collect post-intervention data on physical activity levels, mental and physical health, and social integration. We will also conduct semi-structured interviews with all women in the active arm to learn more about their experiences in and impressions of the program. Our 12-week program will be followed by 12 more weeks of dance classes where waitlist women are invited to join the classes. Attendance of all women will be tracked.