Abstract

The objective was to analyze the intensity and level of physical activity in diabladas during the festival of La Tirana in Chile. The study was non-experimental, cross-sectional, exploratory, descriptive and comparative. Fifty dancers from a Chilean diablada (30 women and 20 men) participated. The evaluations were carried out during the religious festival of La Tirana in northern Chile. Actigraph GTX-3 model accelerometers were used to quantify the study variables and were installed at the waist. The dancers had effective dance days between 3 and 5 hours/day. The average intensity per hour of dancing was 3.1 +/- 1.0 METs, the percentage of dance intensity to moderate to vigorous intensity (AFMV) was 46.4% +/- 2.7%; the average number of steps per hour was 3124 +/- 178 and the time in moderate to vigorous activity (AFMV) ranged from 83.1 to 138.5 min per day. Differences in very vigorous physical activity were found between men and women (F=9.57; p=0.003; n2p=0.127). Diabladas dancers present high levels of physical activity during the religious festival of La Tirana in Chile. Every day the dancers exceed the international recommendations for physical activity, which can generate benefits in health and quality of life.