Women's Foot Health-Related Quality of Life in Ballet Dancers and Nondancers.

Abstract

Prevalence and severity of symptoms related to muscle and joint pain seem to be high in most dancers. There will be a worse quality of life related to foot health for ballet dancers compared with nondancers. Case-control study. Level 4. A sample of 156 women was recruited from a clinic of podiatric medicine and surgery. Self-reported data were measured by the Foot Health Status Questionnaire (FHSQ), which has 33 questions that assess 8 health domains of the feet and general health, namely, foot pain, foot function, general foot health, footwear, general health, physical activity, social capacity, and vigor. Statistically significant differences (P < 0.05) were shown for foot pain, foot function, foot health, and general health, which together revealed a worse foot health-related quality of life (lower FHSQ scores) but a better general health (higher FHSQ scores) for ballet dancers compared with nondancers. The remaining domains did not show statistically significant differences (P > 0.05). According to multivariate linear regression models (P < 0.05), the practice of ballet dance (group) was the only independent variable that predicted the dependent variables, such as foot pain (R2 = 0.052;β = +8.349), foot function (R2 = 0.108; β = +11.699), foot health (R2 = 0.039; β = +10.769), and general health (R2 = 0.019; β = -6.795). Ballet dancers showed a negative impact on quality of life related to foot health but better overall quality of life (general health) compared with nondancers. Paying attention to a dancer's foot health could provide important benefits for the dancer's foot health and physical practice of dance.