A Survey of Injuries Affecting Pre-Professional Ballet Dancers.
A cross-sectional design was employed retrospectively to evaluate injuries self-reported by 71 pre-professional ballet dancers over one season. Some of the descriptive findings of this survey were consistent with those of previous research and suggest particular demographic and injury trends in pre-professional ballet. These results include gender distribution, mean age and age range of participants, training hours, injury location, acute versus overuse injuries, as well as average number of physiotherapy treatments per dancer. Other results provide information that was heretofore unreported or inconsistent with previous investigations. These findings involved proportion of dancers injured, average number of injuries per dancer, overall injury incidence during an 8.5 month period, incidence rate by technique level, mean time loss per injury, proportion of recurrent injury, and activity practiced at time of injury. The results of univariate analyses revealed several significant findings, including a decrease in incidence rate of injury with increased months of experience in the pre-professional program, dancers having lower injury risk in rehearsal and performance than in class, and a reduced risk of injury for dancers at certain technique levels. However, only this latter finding remained significant in multivariate analysis. The results of this study underscore the importance of determining injury rates by gender, technique level, and activity setting in addition to overall injury rates. They also point to the necessity of looking at both overall and individual dancer-based injury risks.
Department of Kinesiology and Public Health Education, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA; 106 Blazing Star Drive, Georgetown, Texas 78633, USA. dennis.caine@und.edu.
Dennis
D
Caine
Faculty of Kinesiology and Applied Health, The University of Winnipeg, Canada.
Glen
G
Bergeron
Department of Biology, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA.
Brett J
BJ
Goodwin
Faculty of Kinesiology and Applied Health, The University of Winnipeg, Canada.
Jessica
J
Thomas
Department of Dance, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA.
Caroline G
CG
Caine
Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; Canadian Faculty, Neuro-Orthopedic Institute of Australasia, Adelaide. Australia; Centric Health Sports Therapy & Wellness, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Sam
S
Steinfeld
Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Kevin
K
Dyck
Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Suzanne
S
André
D000293:Adolescent; D016512:Ankle Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology; D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003615:Dancing / Q000293:injuries*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013180:Sprains and Strains / Q000453:epidemiology*; D055815:Young Adult