Self-reported musculoskeletal pain and discomfort in professional ballet dancers in Sweden

Abstract

One hundred and forty-seven professional dancers belonging to the three major companies in Sweden were asked to fill out a standardized questionnaire about musculoskeletal trouble and their work situation. This study details the answers and suggests ways of dealing with this particular work situation. Of the 128 dancers who answered the questionnaire, 121 had experienced trouble some time during the preceding 12 months. The low back was the site provoking most complaints (70%) followed by complaints from ankles/feet (65%) and neck (54%). There were no significant differences between the sexes. Trouble during the preceding 7 days in ankles/feet and low back had been experienced by 30% and 27% of the dancers, respectively. Ankles/feet trouble had kept dancers from their daily work in 54% of the cases, while low back trouble had prevented them from working to a lesser extent (40%) and neck trouble even less so (20%). Of the total 472 problems, 168 (36%) had prevented the dancers from doing their daily work. The answers to what they thought caused their problems to increase and decrease were later categorized as either physical, psychosocial or environmental. Most of the circumstances believed to increase trouble were related to poor training, while the ways to decrease trouble were mostly related to passive therapeutic treatments.