Prevalence and risk factors of dance injury during COVID-19: a cross-sectional study from university students in China

Abstract

© (2021) The Authors. Published by Frontiers Media. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.759413Objectives: Although COVID-19 has transformed dancers’ training environment worldwide, little is known on how this has affected injury prevalence, causes and risk factors. Methods: An online investigation was conducted (September to November 2020) involving Chinese full-time dance students, which covered two 6-month periods just before and during the first COVID-19 lockdown. Results: 2086 students (19 ±2.4yrs) responded. Injury prevalence before lockdown dropped from 39.6% to 16.5% during lockdown (p<0.01). A significant increase in injury severity during lockdown was noted with a 4.1% increase in moderate to severe injuries (p<0.05). During the lockdown, injuries of the lower back, feet and shoulders decreased significantly (p<0.01), but the knees, ankles and groin/hip-joint injuries remained the same. Recurrence of old injury and fatigue remained as the top 2 perceived causes of injury between the two periods with unsuitable floor (p<0.01), cold environment (p<0.05) and set/props (p<0.05) increasing. Students’ fatigue degree decreased (p<0.01) and sleep hours increased (p<0.01) during lockdown. Binary logistic regression analysis indicated that dance injury was associated with fatigue, hours of sleep, and action taken if they suspected an injury during lockdown (p<0.05), but was only related to time set aside for cool-down and age before lockdown (p<0.05). Conclusion: Although the injury prevalence dropped significantly during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Chinese dance students, the main dance injury characteristics remained the same. Decreased fatigue and longer sleep hours could explain the aforementioned drop in injury prevalence during the lockdown.This work was supported by the China Scholarship Council for their financial contribution (D.Y