Epidemiology of injuries in street dancers

• Main Author: Yee, Ernest Chun Tuck
• Other Authors: Swarup Mukherjee
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: Science::General
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/78933
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Background: Street dance (also known as hip-hop dance) has rapidly grown in popularity since its origination in the 1970s and is now practiced by millions of people worldwide. As the dance scene grows globally, increasing number of enthusiasts in Singapore are picking up street dance as a form of physical activity. However, street dance has yet to draw the desired research attention. Purpose: To determine the prevalence rate, severity, types and distribution of injuries amongst street dancers in Singapore. Study Design: Descriptive epidemiological study. Methods: A total of 199 dancers took part in the study. The data was collected retrospectively online through questionnaire licenced Qualtrics survey platform. The study period was from July 2019 to October 2019. Results: A total of 119 dancers (59.9%) sustained injury(s) in the past year (1.62 injuries/1000 training hours). Most injuries occurred during training (82.8%), and the commonly injured body parts were the knee (27.5%), ankle (18.7%), and lower back (14.3%). The more prevalent types of injury sustained were muscle-tendon strains (33.0%) and ligament sprains (23.1%). Majority of the injuries (57.0%) were recurrence of old injuries or aggravation of existing injuries, and 58.2% of the dancers continued to participate in dance despite being injured while 34.4% still feel pain and discomfort while dancing. Conclusion: There was a positive correlation between time spent on training and injury rate. Dancers should be properly educated on the importance of warming up and dance injury prevention and management methods, to make dance a better experience for all. Keywords: street dance; street dancing; hip-hop dance; injuries; epidemiology;