Congratulations to Dr. Eli Puterman, Associate Professor Kinesiology, for his successful CIHR Project Grant application. Dr. Puterman (PI) and his team were funded for $100,000 for their project titled, The Positively Dance Pilot Program: Examining the Feasibility of a Peer Research, Associate-Led Dance Program for Women Living with HIV. Co-investigators on the project are Drs. Mark Beauchamp (KIN), Hélène Côté (UBC), Melanie Murray (UBC), Angela Kaida (SFU), Erica Bennett (Trainee, KIN), and Shelly Tognazzini (Collaborator, Vancouver Friends for Life).
The project aims to pilot a free and easily accessible peer-research, associate-led, 24-week aerobic dance program to assess its feasibility and acceptability, and explore the effects of aerobic dance on immune cellular health markers as a primary outcome, and traditional health markers, and psychological and social wellbeing in a sample of women living with HIV, as secondary outcomes.