Health behaviors in dance teachers and their use of psychoactive substances

Dance teachers (DTs) give lessons on various professional and amateur genres. Up to the present, little has been known on health-related behavior regarding the consumption of substances such as inhalant and synthetic substances, cocaine, cannabis/marijuana (c/m), anabolic steroids and naturally occurring hallucinogens in dance teachers.

To analyze the consumption of these substances as well as to determine influencing variables due to their role model function (educational level, prevalence of injuries, BMI and income).

N = 236 (m: n = 53, f: n = 183) professional DTs participated in the single cross-sectional cohort study.

The majority of DTs had a single or occasional use of the tested substances. This coincides with the results of the general population. C/m was the most frequently consumed substance with a prevalence of up to 40.1% (m). Only a few significant gender-specific differences were observed. There were weak gender-specific correlations between the consumption of substances and educational level (f) and income (m and f) or injuries (f).

Due to the specific occupational stress DTs are exposed to, a use of substances would be conceivable. However, apart from cannabis/marijuana (c/m), the consumption of psychoactive substances in DTs seems to be negligible. However, attention should be paid to the significant proportion of dance teachers having tried out substances.