A Review of Musculoskeletal Dance Screening Tests in Collegiate Dancers: A Ten-Year Retrospective Study

Abstract

Introduction: Amongst dance programs, mitigating the risk of injury using comprehensive screening tests is essential. Currently, the lack of standardization for tests/measurements in screening methodology poses as the main barrier to building more effective, future screening programs for dancers. Our objective is to fill critical gaps in the existing literature on dancer screening by producing normative data, describing screening outcome changes amongst a dancer’s college career, and providing guidance to building similar screening programs. Methods: This original quantitative study establishes normative data found in six tests (the Functional Movement Screen (FMS), Beighton Scale, Harvard Step Test, Y-Balance Test, Sagittal & Frontal Plane Core Stability (Plank Testing), and Turnout Test) within the DanceFIT Injury Prevention Screen collected from Dance Performance and Choreography-major students at a university over the course of ten years. Exploratory data analysis, including Cronbach’s alpha, principal components analysis (PCA), and parallel analysis, and correlation calculations were completed. Results: For all main outcomes of the screening tests, except Plank Testing, the percent change of means increased the most between 1st and 2nd year students (ie, students demonstrated the greatest improvement during this period). The overall screen test’s alpha value, .87 (95% CI, 0.86-0.89), fell in the acceptable alpha values range. PCA, parallel analysis, and eigenvalues demonstrated how four to seven components explained the variance of the screening tests. The Turnout components are highly correlated, the Plank Testing components moderately correlated, and the Harvard Step Test and FMS components were lowly correlated. Conclusion: The screening test data indicate replicability for future dancing injury prevention screening programs. Findings from this study suggest increasing the current literature’s 14-point cutoff of FMS testing in dancers, adjusting components of screening tests, and adapting courses based on screening test performance to reduce injury risk for dancers. Next steps include prospective studies to track injuries, validate screening methods, and establish appropriate cut off scores for dancers.