Abstract

To systematically review the ankle injury epidemiology among dancers. Design: Systematic review. Data sources: MEDLINE, PEDro, Google Scholar, PubMed databases were searched from their inceptions to 17th of March, 2021. Reference lists of identified studies were hand-searched for additional relevant studies. The guideline for Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) was adopted for this review. Inclusion criteria: Prospective or retrospective studies that reported musculoskeletal injury findings in a dance population, studies that reported only ankle injuries with prevalence percentage, or the incidence rate among the surveyed dancers or provided sufficient data from which these injuries were calculated. The qualities of the included studies were assessed using 11 criteria adapted from STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guidelines. Results: 56 studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria. A weighted prevalence of 69.7% ankle sprain was found in this review. Ankle sprain, Achilles tendonitis, strain and anterior impingement syndromes were the most common ankle injuries in dance. The causes /mechanisms of the injuries included among others, falls from extremely planter-flexed position from pointe works, and poor landing techniques from jumps. Conclusion: The prevalence of ankle injuries in dance is high, the majority of studies on injuries in dance are retrospective in design and there is inadequate involvement of qualified medical personnel in dance. Recommendation: More prospective studies on dance injuries are needed and injury preventions guidelines should be introduced and emphasized at all times in dance.

Keyword: Dance injuries, epidemiology, ankle injuries, ankle sprains, overuse injuries.