Exploring Self-Reported Participation and Injury Trends in Private Studio Dancers: Implications for Injury Prevention Strategies.
Date
2023-04-28
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Abstract
Introduction: The majority of dance injury research has examined pre-professional and professional ballet and contemporary dancers. Most dancers begin their training in a private studio environment at a young age and train in a variety of dance styles, however the studio dance population has largely been left out of the research. Objective: To describe the participation and injury trends among pre-adolescent studio dancers, as well as the feasibility of further research in the studio dance population. Methods: Validity and reliability study and cross-sectional study designs. Dancer participants were recruited from private dance studios across Alberta, Canada. The validity and reliability study (VRS) utilized a 4-stage process to design and evaluate a novel questionnaire (Pre-Adolescent Dance Injury and Participation Questionnaire [PADIP-Q]): initial questionnaire design based on previous literature, expert panel review (n=9), cognitive interviews (n=6) and test-retest reliability (n=28). The cross-sectional study (CSS) used the PADIP-Q to examine demographics, dance training, and injury among pre-adolescent studio dancers, 19 private dance studios participated, and 56 dancers (age 7-12 years) completed the questionnaire reflecting on the previous 1-year (1y) and previous 4-months (4m). Results: For the VRS, key recommendations for revision of the PADIP-Q included vocabulary adjustment, inclusion of operational definitions, additional categorization of dance classes and styles, and layout adjustments. Reliability assessment demonstrated good to excellent reliability across all items of the questionnaire (categorical: Cohen’s kappa coefficients (k) 0.32-1.00, percent agreement (%A) 81-100%; numerical: Interclass correlation coefficients (ICC) 0.14-1.00, Pearson’s correlation coefficients (r) 0.14-1.00, largest absolute mean difference (md) 0.46). For the CSS, 36% (95%CI 0.22,0.52)(1y) and 29%(95%CI 0.16,0.45)(4m) of participants reported an injury, 70%(1y) and 75%(4m) of reported injuries were acute (1y:70%; 4m:75%), and muscle strains (1y:35; 4m:55%) or joint sprains (1y:25; 4m:29%). Dancers reported training in multiple styles and median dance hours as 6.9 hours/week(1y) and 7.0 hours/week(4m). Conclusion: The PADIP-Q was found to be valid and reliable for use with pre-adolescent private studio dancers. Pre-adolescent studio dancers train for several hours each week in a variety of dance styles; they are also experiencing acute injuries that affect their ability to fully participate in dance. To develop effective injury prevention and rehabilitation strategies, further study is needed.
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Keywords
Preadolescent, Dance, Injury, Dance Injury, Dance Participation, Dance Exposure, Studio Dance, Questionnaire, Injury Questionnaire, Participation Questionnaire, Injury Surveillance
Citation
George, A. B. (2023). Exploring self-reported participation and injury trends in private studio dancers: implications for injury prevention strategies (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.