title: Injury patterns in young, non-professional dancers.
abstract: The aim of the present study was to assess the prevalence and types of injuries in 1336 young, non-professional female dancers (age 8-16 years) who participated in a descriptive mixed (cross-sectional/ longitudinal) cohort study. Previous and current injuries were diagnosed and later classified into seven major categories. Our results show that 569 (42.6%) of the dancers examined manifested an injury. Advanced age and increased exposure to dance yielded an equivalent increase in the prevalence of injured girls: from 1 of 10 girls in the 8-year-old age cohort (mean = 1.05 per 1000 h) to 1 of 3 girls in the 14-year-old age cohort (mean = 1.25 per 1000 h). Time elapsing between first and second injuries decreased with age. Among the youngest group of dancers (8-9 years) the most common injury was tendonitis (41%), while in adolescent dancers (14-16 years) knee injuries became the leading cause of complaints (33%). We conclude that young, non-professional dancers are at high risk of injury. Dancers who had been injured in the past were at higher risk for re-injury. Tendonitis in the foot or ankle joint was a common injury among the youngest dancers, while knee injuries were common among adolescent dancers. A routine screening of this dancer population by an expert in dance medicine will reduce the risk for an injury.
authors.affiliation: Anatomy and Anthropology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel. knopp@wincol.ac.il
authors.forename: Nili
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Steinberg
authors.forename: Itzhak
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Siev-Ner
authors.forename: Smadar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Peleg
authors.forename: Gali
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dar
authors.forename: Youssef
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Masharawi
authors.forename: Aviva
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zeev
authors.forename: Israel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hershkovitz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D016512:Ankle Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D056352:Athletes; D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003615:Dancing / Q000293:injuries*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007718:Knee Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D015995:Prevalence; D052256:Tendinopathy / Q000453:epidemiology*