Overuse Injuries in Professional Ballet: Influence of Age and Years of Professional Practice

This descriptive epidemiological study was conducted between January 1, 2005 and October 10, 2010. The study included dancers who were members of the main Spanish ballet companies and who suffered injuries and were diagnosed and treated in the Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery Service at Fremap in Madrid.

To evaluate the influence of age and years of professional practice on the occurrence of injuries, the researchers divided the subjects into 3 age groups: junior (≤ 21 years with a professional average of 2.5 years), intermediate (between 22 and 31 years with a professional average of 7.83 years) and senior (≥ 32 years with a professional average of 16.19 years). Taking into account that the population of these three groups experienced certain variations during the study period, the values of the different parameters were obtained based on the number of registered injuries and not on the number of dancers studied.

The prevalence of overuse injuries was 0.239 injuries per 1000 hours of dance. As expected, there is a strong correlation between age and years of professional practice. Overuse injuries were more common among younger dancers, especially women. In men, the prevalence of overuse injuries was similar among junior and senior professional dancers.

However, the prevalence of injuries was significantly higher in junior professionals practicing classical ballet, senior dancers practicing contemporary ballet, and intermediate dancers practicing neoclassical ballet, compared to other disciplines by age group. Certain injuries (patellofemoral syndrome, trigonum syndrome, second metatarsal stress fracture, and hip fracture) were seen more frequently in junior professional dancers (P < 0.05).

Achilles tendinopathy was one of the conditions that showed a similar prevalence in the different groups. Other conditions such as chondral injury of the knee or lumbar disc disease became more prevalent with increasing age and years of professional practice. In terms of anatomical location by age group, ankle injuries were more frequent in junior professional dancers, spine, ankle and foot injuries in intermediate professional dancers, and spine, hip and knee injuries in senior professional dancers.

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