IADMS Madrid 2001   [back to the Category]

Treatment choices of injured high school dancers   [read the french version]

Author :   Bonnie E. Robson, MD,

Treatment choices of injured high school dancers

Bonnie E. Robson, MD, FRCP, Dept. of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Belleville, Ontario, Canada

Introduction: Professional dancers and college dance students have a high rate of injuries and tend to seek care and rehabilitation outside the medical profession.(1) Previous research comparing high school dance with music students showed that dancers had more injuries.(2) This paper looks at the choice of traditional medical or other physical treatment in high school dancers.

Method: As part of an international project a subjective questionnaire that addresses questions of health was developed over the last 6 years. The current research focuses on those questions to do with injuries, time out of class, diagnoses, treatment recommendations and the treatment completed. Dance-related current and chronic injuries are analyzed separately.

Results: Previous analysis of the data of the first 257 respondents, 90% of whom are female, mean age of 16.1 years, found that 173 (70%) have had an injury in the last two years, 70 (28%) a current injury and 104 (43%) a chronic injury with 82 (34%) a chronic dance related injury. Although 90.7% reported that their parents and 82% that their teachers were supportive when they were injured, 42% performed against medical advice.

Discussion: Psychologically adolescents believe themselves to be invulnerable. Even faced with an injury, their denial of risk of permanent damage can be so strong that they perform against medical advice. In Hamilton’s studies of 960 dancers almost half felt pressure to work while injured.(3) This appears to be a behavior already present among the students. We see that students who seek medical advice often ignore it. They may be biased already against medical opinion. Alternatively dance students with heightened kinesthetic intelligence may be seeking more active treatment than traditional medicine offers. Hopefully this paper will serve as a database for future research into ways medical personnel can adequately meet the needs of young dancers.

1. Krasnow D., C-I Training, Med Probl Perf Art, 12(1): 3-8, 1997.
2. Robson B.E, Gitev M., Health and Health-Related Problems of Art Students, Med Probl Perf Art, 8(4): 136-140, 1993.
3. Hamilton L.H., Dancers’ health survey part II, From injury to peak performance. Dance Magazine, 60-65, 1997.