Injury, illness and physical demands of professional contemporary dancers: Health outcomes and methodological issues
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2021
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Introduction: Professional dance is a highly demanding physical activity, with both high injury rates and training load and no research examining illness occurrence. Additionally, few studies have investigated these relationships concurrently. In order to investigate relationships conceptual models and valid measurement tools are required. Despite the widespread use of these measurement tools few have been validated. Therefore, this thesis sought to investigate training load, injury and illness in dance and also develop an appropriate conceptual framework for monitoring and also validating measurement tools in dance. In Study One, medical attention and time loss injury, illness and training load data were recorded across one year in a cohort of professional contemporary dancers (n=16). The results show that professional dancers experienced high training loads relative to other athletes and concomitantly high injury and illness incidences and risks. In addition, dancers continued training and performing, even when affected by medical attention injury or illness. Study Two was a two-part systematic review. Part one identified the most commonly used athlete reported outcome measures (AROMs) in sport for monitoring training responses; part two assessed the risk of bias, measurement properties, and level of evidence, based on international clinimetric guidelines. Results demonstrated that whilst the measurement properties of multiple-item AROMs derived from psychometrics were acceptable (with the exclusion of content validity and measurement error) the single-item AROMs most frequently used in sport science have not been validated. Until proper validation studies are completed, all conclusions based on these AROMs are questionable. Study Three was the development of an updated conceptual framework providing an overarching model that may help understand and guide the development, validation, implementation, and interpretation of measures used for athlete monitoring. Using the conceptual framework (Study Three) as a foundation, Study Four examined the construct validity and reliability of the single items fatigue and recovery for measuring the training effects in dancers. Results provide preliminary evidence confirming the construct validity, reliability and agreement for the single item of fatigue. The recovery item, despite acceptable reliability and agreement, was only partially confirmed in terms of construct validity, when using the SRSS recovery items as reference. Conclusion: Collectively, this thesis provides novel information regarding factors affecting dancer’s health and the development of a conceptual framework for monitoring and also validating measurement tools in dance.
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