You are here

Article Text

Article menu

Download PDFPDF

XML
Original article
Detailed injury epidemiology in contemporary dance: a 1-year prospective study of 134 students
  1. Diana P A M van Winden1,2,3,
  2. Rogier M Van Rijn1,3,
  3. Angelo Richardson1,3,
  4. Geert J P Savelsbergh2,4,5,
  5. Raôul R D Oudejans2,4,5,
  6. Janine H Stubbe1,3,6
  1. 1 Department of Performing Arts Medicine, Codarts University of the Arts, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
  2. 2 Department of Human Movement Sciences, Amsterdam Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  3. 3 Performing artist and Athlete Research Lab (PEARL), Rotterdam, The Netherlands
  4. 4 Institute of Brain and Behavior, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  5. 5 Faculty of Sports and Nutrition, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  6. 6 Rotterdam Arts and Science Lab (RASL), Rotterdam, The Netherlands
  1. Correspondence to Dr Rogier M Van Rijn; rmvanrijn{at}codarts.nl

Abstract

Aim We investigated the extent and characteristics of injuries in contemporary dance students.

Methods During one academic year, 134 students of Bachelor dance and Bachelor dance teacher from Codarts University of the Arts (Rotterdam, the Netherlands) were prospectively monitored monthly, using the Performing Artist and Athlete Health Monitor which includes the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Centre Questionnaire on Health Problems.

Results 130 students were included in the analyses. The response rate of monthly completed questionnaires was 80%. During the academic year, 97% of students reported at least one injury, mental complaint or other health problem. The 1-year injury incidence proportion was 81%. Of these injured students, 58% were substantially injured (ie, problems leading to moderate or severe reductions in training volume or performance or complete inability to participate in activities). The monthly injury proportion (all injuries) ranged from 23% to 43% and for substantial injuries from 6% to 17%. The injury incidence rate per 1000 hours dance exposure was 1.9 (95% CI 1.7 to 2.2). Ankle/foot (30%), lower back (17%) and knee (15%) were the most common sites of injury.

Conclusion Contemporary dance students are at high risk for injuries. Injury prevention programmes among contemporary dance students should focus on the ankle/foot, lower back and knee.

  • performing arts
  • preprofessional
  • prospective cohort study
  • health complaints

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2018-000453

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Contributors All authors made a substantial contribution to the information and material submitted and have read and approved the final version. DVW performed the data collection analysed the data and wrote the manuscript. RMVR assisted with performing the data collection, analysing the data and writing the manuscript. AR assisted with the data analyses. GJPS, RRDO and JS initiated the study and contributed to the content of the article.

    • Funding This work was supported by the National association of Applied Sciences SIA under Grant number 2015-02-73P.

    • Disclaimer The authors report no financial interest or benefit arising from the direct applications of this research.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.