| dc.description.abstract | Dancing includes repetitive movements involving numerous joints in the body, which
may cause musculoskeletal ailments. Physical health issues among dancers have not
been studied in Sri Lanka. Therefore, this study is aimed at determining the prevalence
of musculoskeletal injuries among undergraduate dancers and assessing its relationship
with selected academic characteristics. This descriptive cross-sectional study included
15 males and 85 females from the Faculty of Dancing and Drama, University of Visual
and Performing Arts, Sri Lanka. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to
collect socio-demographic, academic and dancing characteristics and injury assessment.
Height and weight were measured using standard protocols. The SPSS software (version
20) was used for data analysis. Mean age, height and weight of the study population were
26 (SD=2.13) years, 158.1 (SD=6.7) cm and 55.1 (SD=9.7) kg respectively. Prevalence of
musculoskeletal injuries was 59% (n=59). Injury prevalence of males and females was
13.5% (n=8) and 86.5%(n=51) respectively. Knee was the mostly reported joint (n=26,
44.1%), followed by trunk (n=11, 18.6%) and ankle (n=6, 10.2%) injuries. Least affected
areas were head, neck, upper arm and wrist (n=1, 1.7%). By using chi-square test it was
found that academic year, dancing style, number of dancing types followed and hours of
dancing per week were the factors(p<0.05) significantly associated with
musculoskeletal injuries. Prevalence of musculoskeletal injuries among dancing
undergraduates was high and knee joint was reported as the mostly affected joint.
Musculoskeletal injuries were reported to increase with higher academic year, dancing
hours per week and decreased with number of dancing types followed by the dancing
undergraduates. | en_US |
