Dance exposure, general health, sleep and injury in elite adolescent Irish dancers: A prospective study
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Published on: May 26, 2020
Roisin Cahalan1, Norma Bargary2, Kieran O'Sullivan3
1School of Allied Health, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland; Health Research Institute, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.
Objectives:
To investigate dance exposure, sleep, general health and injury in elite adolescent Irish dancers.
Design:
Prospective study.
Setting:
Six Irish dance schools in Ireland.
Participants:
Thirty-seven elite Irish dancers, aged 13-17, competing at the highest championship level for at least the previous year.
Main Outcome Measures:
Self-reported weekly hours of dance, general health, sleep quality, monthly and annual height and weight, injury incidence.
Results:
Overall injury incidence (time-loss plus non-time-loss) and time-loss only injury incidence were 9.3 injuries, and 4.5 injuries, per 1000 hours of dance respectively. At least one injury was incurred by 86.5% of participants, with the foot/ankle most commonly affected. There were no statistically significant associations (p>0.05) between injury and sleep quality, or annual change in height/weight. There was some evidence of a statistically significant association between injury and health quality, with poorer health associated with increased levels of injury. There was no evidence of a statistically significant association between the probability of injury over time and sleep quality one week earlier, health quality one week earlier, or training load one and two weeks earlier.
Conclusions:
The incidence of injury in elite adolescent Irish dance is considerable with many dancers continuing to dance when injured. Increased dance exposure is associated with new injury.
