Health-Related Quality of Life, Dance Exposure, and Injuries across a 16-week semester in Collegiate Dancers

OBJECTIVE:  Dance is physically demanding with reported injury incidence rates(IR) ranging from 1.7-5.3 injuries/1000 dance exposure hours(DEhr). Dance participation (i.e. exposure) may affect injury rates as well as physical, mental, social, and overall well-being. Health-related quality of life(HRQoL) measures like the SF-20 encompass multiple domains important to well-being. However, little research has examined how HRQoL, dance exposure, and injury status are related in collegiate dancers. Our purposes were to 1) examine if HRQoL at the start of the semester (-pre) or DEhr could predict dancers’ IR and 2) compare dancers’ HRQoL between the start (HRQoL-pre) and end of one 16-week semester(HRQoL-post).

METHODS: We recorded dancers’ injuries, DEHr, and HRQoL using the SF-20 at the start and end of the semester in 20 collegiate dancers(18.3±0.7 years,170.7±7.7 cm,70.2±18.9 kg) over a 16-week semester.

RESULTS: Fourteen dancers were injured(total 21 injuries; IR=2.9/1000 DEhr; 95% CI: 1.6-4.1). Neither HRQoL-pre (Nagelkerke r2 =0.07, χ2=(1, N=20)=0.9, p=0.3) nor dance exposure (Nagelkerke r2 =0.2, χ2=(1, N=20)=2.9, p=0.2) predicted IR. Dancers’ HRQoL remained similar across the semester (F1, 16=.07, p=.8, effect size=.04).

CONCLUSION: Despite most dancers suffering an injury, their HRQoL remained unchanged over the study period. HRQoLpre nor dance exposure influenced injury status. Dancers’ active involvement in class despite being injured may have moderated impacts on their HRQoL. How dance exposure influences dancers’ injury rates in larger cohorts and over longer time periods needs study. Overall, understanding relationships among injury, exposure, and HRQoL can help practitioners keep dancers healthy.