Epidemiological study of injuries in highland dancers

Abstract

The repetitive ballistic movements in highland dancing, which occur at more than 100 beats/min while the dancers try to reach a maximal vertical height with each jump, could possibly develop chronic injuries similar to ballet and aerobic dance. This study aimed to determine the following: number of injuries/dancer, number of injuries/100 hours of training, the number of chronic injuries compared to acute, anatomical location of the injuries and possible predictors for sustaining an injury in highland dancers. The 76 participants, aged 7 through 22, were from two Saskatoon Dance Schools. The information was collected by retrospective and prospective questionnaires and data analyzed using a Chi-square, analysis of variance and a binary logistic regression. The six-month retrospective survey found a total of 6 dance-related injuries compared to the 42 dance-related injuries in the four-month prospective questionnaire. When analyzing only the injured dancers the CHD (competitive) had 1.62 injuries/dancer, RHD (recreational) had 1.86 injuries/dancer and the Control group (non-highland dancers) had 2.0 injuries/dancer. Significant differences were not found for the number of injuries sustained in these three dance groups (X2 = 0.72, p