Musculoskeletal injuries and their management : students dancers' knowledge, experiences and actions

Abstract

This study aimed to explore student contemporary and ballet dancers' awareness regarding musculoskeletal injuries and their management. Further objectives include; to explore student dancers' awareness of common injuries associated with contemporary and ballet dancing, to explore any actions taken by these dancers once they do sustain a musculoskeletal injury, to explore subsequent management of the injuries sustained and to identify any measures taken by these dancers to prevent musculoskeletal injuries. A quantitative approach was used to collect data through non-probability sampling, by distributing 70 self-administered questionnaires to student dancers from 7 different dance schools. The response rate obtained was of 57 .14% and the sample consisted of 40 participants between 18 and 26 years of age. Results from this study was interpreted through frequency distribution and showed that the injury rate amongst these participants is considerably high. Furthermore, what the participants perceived to be the most common musculoskeletal injuries is similar to the actual injuries suffered by them, and these included lower extremity and back injuries involving the muscles and consisting mostly of sprains and strains. The majority of the injured participants also continued to dance after being injured and furthermore, did not manage them according to what is advised by the literature. Advice was mostly sought from physiotherapists, doctors and teachers. Different combinations of prevention strategies were used by the participants and these strategies were mostly learnt from their respective dance school. These results reflect the need to further educate student dancers about dance injury prevention and management, by the implementation of special educational programmes carried out by a health care multidisciplinary team including nurses, physiotherapists and medical practitioners. If other similar studies are to be carried out, these could include ballet and contemporary teachers, instructors, choreographers and student dancers to allow comparison between them and to obtain a larger sample.