Prevalence of dance-related injuries and associated risk factors among children and young Chinese dance practitioners.

While Chinese dance is a popular dance genre among Chinese teenagers and adults, little is known regarding the prevalence of dance-related injuries or factors associated with such injuries among Chinese dance practitioners. The current cross-sectional study aimed to determine the prevalence of dance-related injuries and their associated risk factors among young Chinese dance practitioners in Hong Kong. Online surveys were distributed to dancers through local dance associations, while paper-based surveys were distributed to young Chinese dance performers during the 54th School Dance Festival in Hong Kong. Self-reported hours of dancing, injuries in the last 12 months, injury sites, and related factors were collected. The injury rate, 12-month prevalence of dance-related injuries were determined. Risk factors for common dance injuries were analyzed using separate multivariate regression models. A total of 175 children (aged 10-14 years) and 118 young (aged 15-24 years) Chinese dance practitioners provided their dance injury information. Young dancers had a significantly higher injury rate (6.5 injuries vs 4.6 injuries/1000 dance hours) and 12-month prevalence (52.5% vs 19.4%) than their child counterparts. The most commonly injured sites were the knee (children:7.4%; young:15.3%), lower back (children: 4.6%; young: 9.5%), and ankles (children: 5.1%; young: 16.9%). Age was a significant independent risk factor for dance-related injuries to the upper back, lower back, and pelvis/buttock (odds ratios ranging from 1.2 to 1.3/additional years). Additionally, height was a significant independent risk factor for lower limb injury (odds ratios ranging from 1.0-1.1/additional centimeter). Collectively, young Chinese dance practitioners are more vulnerable to dance-related injuries than are child dancers. Older age increases the risk of trunk injuries, whereas taller dancers are more likely to sustain lower-limb injuries. Future research should determine the mechanisms underlying dance-related injuries among these dancers.

Comparison of Dance-Related Foot and Ankle Injuries Among Pre-Professional Ballet, Contemporary, and Chinese Dancers.

BACKGROUND: Foot and ankle injuries have been noted as the most common in dancers. However, the variability of injury epidemiology across different dance genres has not been clearly evaluated. Herein, this study aimed to evaluate the prevalence and incidence of foot and ankle problems in pre-professional ballet, contemporary, and Chinese dancers.
Methods: Participants (N = 54) were recruited from a local dance institution that offered a formal undergraduate dance program. Demographic characteristics and specifics of foot and ankle pain during dancing were collected through an online self-reporting survey from September 2018 to June 2019. Descriptive statistical analyses, including injury incidence and risk rates, were conducted.
Results: The overall response rate was 69.3%, with a total of 88 subjects eligible for analysis of which the results from 54 subjects were ultimately analyzed. The incidence of foot and ankle pain during the academic year of 2018 to 2019 was highest in contemporary dancers (0.38 per 1,000 dance hours) when compared to that of ballet (0.32 per 1,000 dance hours) and Chinese dancers (0.22 per 1,000 dance hours). Prevalence of foot and ankle pain within the same year was 84% in ballet dancers, 79% in Chinese dancers, and 70% in contemporary dancers. Ballet dancers were six times more likely to suffer from pain in the Achilles region than Chinese and contemporary dancers (p < 0.01). Chinese dancers were found to experience more forefoot and midfoot problems compared to ballet and contemporary dancers (p < 0.05).
Conclusion: This study illustrated that foot and ankle pain is highly prevalent among pre-profes- sional dancers. Ballet was associated with the highest prevalence of foot-ankle pain while contemporary dance was associated with the highest incidence. There were significant differences of foot and ankle pain among dance genres and anatomical subregions, which suggests a need for targeted genre-specific injury prevention programs in hopes of preventing potentially career-ending injuries in dancers.

Is Scoliosis Associated with Dance Injury in Young Recreational Dancers? A Large-Scale Cross-Sectional Epidemiological Study.

Some studies suggested that adolescent scoliotic dancers were more likely to sustain dance injuries than non-scoliotic dancers. This study aimed to investigate the association between scoliosis and dance injury among children and adolescent recreational dancers. Identical web-based and paper-based questionnaires were distributed to children and adolescent recreational dancers to collect demographic information, dance experiences, history and location of dance injuries, as well as the frequency of dance injury in the last 12 months. The prevalence rates of the top three dance injury sites (lower back, knee, and ankles) were estimated. Associations between the presence of scoliosis and various dance injuries in the last 12 months were evaluated by multivariate logistic regression. Data from 704 respondents (644 females, 13.3 ± 2.4 years) was analyzed. Ninety-one respondents (12.9%) reported scoliosis and 11 respondents (1.6%) were wearing scoliosis braces. The 12-month prevalence rates of lumbar, knee, and ankle injuries in scoliotic dancers (24.2%, 22.2%, and 28.5%, respectively) were significantly higher than those of non-scoliotic dancers (10.4%, 14.9%, and 14.8%, respectively). Scoliosis was an independent risk factor for lumbar spine injury (Odds ratio, OR = 2.7), knee injury (OR = 2.6), and multi-site dance-related injury (OR = 1.9). Given the observed strong associations between scoliosis and lumbar or knee dance injuries in the current study, future studies are warranted to investigate the underlying causes.

Measuring Training Load in Dance: The Construct Validity of Session-RPE.

OBJECTIVE: The session rating of perceived exertion (session-RPE) is a practical and non-invasive method that allows a quantification of internal training load (ITL) in individual and team sports. As yet, no study has investigated its construct validity in dance. This study examines the convergent validity between the session-RPE method and an objective heart rate (HR)-based method of quantifying the similar ITL in vocational dance students during professional dance training. METHODS: Ten dance students (4 male, 20±1.16 yrs; 6 female, 20±0.52 yrs) participated in this study. During a normal week of training, session-RPE and HR data were recorded in 96 individual sessions. HR data were analysed using Edwards-TL method. Correlation analysis was used to evaluate the convergent validity between the session-RPE and Edwards-TL methods for assessing ITL in a variety of training modes (contemporary, ballet, and rehearsal). RESULTS: The overall correlation between individual session-RPE and Edwards-TL was r=0.72, p<0.0001, suggesting there was a statistically significantly strong positive relationship between session-RPE and Edwards-TL. This trend was observed across all the training modes: rehearsal sessions (r=0.74, p=0.001), contemporary (r=0.60, p=0.001), and ballet (r=0.46, p=0.018) sessions. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that session-RPE can be considered as a valid method to assess ITL for vocational dance students, and that notably there is some variation between session-RPE and HR-based TL in different dance activities.