Don't stop me now: A qualitative study of how Brazilian dancers and staff perceive injury and its prevention.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate how Brazilian dancers and dance staff perceive and deal with injury and its prevention in professional and non-professional contexts. DESIGN: Qualitative study. SETTING: Semi-structured interviews conducted using an online platform. PARTICIPANTS: Thirteen participants (8 women, 5 men) from four different dance styles (classical ballet, jazz, contemporary and urban): 6 dancers, 6 staff and 1 classified as both. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed based on Grounded Theory principles using comparative data analysis. RESULTS: The main themes and findings were: 1) Injury definition: Injury was defined and classified based on pain, structural damage and consequent limitations and restrictions. 2) Dealing with injury: Dancers' fear of having to stop dancing justifies different behaviours facing injury. 3) Injury factors: Overload and many personal and environmental factors were perceived as related to injury. 4) Injury prevention: it is linked with physical preparation and additional measures and influenced by communication, trust, experience, time, access to preventive programs, dancers' personalities and environmental factors. Responsibility for injury prevention should be shared by all stakeholders. CONCLUSIONS: To improve injury prevention, we need to acknowledge the dancers' drive to keep dancing, consider the multiple factors that influence their behaviours, and develop education and self-efficacy to help them make better decisions to reduce the risk of injury.

Oxygen uptake efficiency slope in community-dwelling ambulant stroke survivors during walking and stair climbing: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Oxygen uptake efficiency slope during submaximal tests has been proposed as a more appropriate measure of aerobic capacity after suffering a stroke, since some individuals cannot tolerate maximal exercise testing. However, it has not yet been investigated whether the oxygen uptake efficiency slope is able to differentiate between healthy individuals and those who have suffered a stroke. OBJECTIVES: To compare the oxygen uptake efficiency slope during walking and stair climbing between stroke survivors and age- and sex-matched healthy controls. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study in which 18 individuals who had suffered a stroke (stroke survivors) and 18 healthy controls matched for sex and age were included. Oxygen consumption and minute ventilation were collected breath-by-breath during walking (6-min Walk Test) and stair climbing. The oxygen uptake efficiency slope was estimated by the slope of the line obtained through linear regression. RESULTS: The stroke survivors had a lower oxygen uptake efficiency slope during the 6-min Walk Test than the healthy controls (MD 498, 95% CI 122 to 873, p = .01). The between-group difference for the Stair Test was smaller and not statistically significant (MD 349, 95%CI -73 to 772, p = .10). CONCLUSIONS: Stroke survivors had lower oxygen uptake efficiency slope during the performance of the 6-min Walk Test when compared to sex- and age-matched healthy controls. This suggests that stroke survivors have worse cardiopulmonary capacity.