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Description

Background:

Dancers are susceptible to overuse foot and ankle injuries, however there is a lack biomechanical studies examining foot mechanics to explain the causality of these injuries. The purpose of this study was to determine the intra and inter-assessor repeatability of a modified Rizzoli Foot Model (RFM) for ballet dancers.

Methods: Six university-level ballet dancers performed the following trials in randomized order, natural stance, turnout plié and stance, and two dynamic trials; turnout rise and flex-point-flex movement. A twelve-camera motion capture system were used to track fourteen reflective markers and one triad on the following segments: shank, entire foot, hindfoot, midfoot, forefoot and hallux. A repeated-measure design was used with each participant undergoing four data collection sessions; i.e. two sessions were conducted by each researcher over two consecutive days. Variability of the 3D segment rotations and planar angles were determined using intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) for the intra and inter-assessor repeatability.

Results:

Intra and inter-assessor reliability demonstrated excellent (ICC ≥ 0.75) reliability for 1st metatarsophalangeal joint sagittal plane measurements. Intra-assessor variability demonstrated excellent (ICC ≥ 0.75) reliability in the sagittal plane and frontal planes for all the discrete static variables, except the midfoot-forefoot articulation which was in the sagittal and transverse planes. Whereas the inter-assessor variability revealed fair to good repeatability (0.5 ≤ ICC < 0.75). The trend towards a lower inter-assessor repeatability indicates the lack of training of the marker placement protocol. A similar trend was found in the repeatability in the dynamic trials.

Intra and inter-assessor reliability demonstrated excellent (ICC ≥ 0.75) reliability for 1st metatarsophalangeal joint sagittal plane measurements. Intra-assessor variability demonstrated excellent (ICC ≥ 0.75) reliability in the sagittal and frontal planes for all the discrete static variables, except the midfoot-forefoot articulation which was in the sagittal and transverse planes. Inter-assessor repeatability revealed large variability from poor to excellent (0.5 > ICC ≥ 0.75) repeatability for the 3D segmental rotations.

Conclusion:

Three-dimensional multi-segment foot models have the potential to be reliably used in dance screenings to ascertain whether technical errors and/or biomechanical abnormalities are the cause of a dancers’ lower limb overuse injury. However, research laboratories should develop good marker placement protocol to endeavour to produce repeatable between assessor results.

Publication Date

2017

School

Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA)

Disciplines

Dance | Podiatry | Sports Medicine

Comments

Originally presented as Sarah L. Carter, Nahoko Sato & Luke S. Hopper (2017) Kinematic repeatability of a multi-segment foot model for dance. Poster presented at realise 2017. Australasian Podiatry Conference, May 24-23, Melbourne.

Kinematic repeatability analyses of multi-segment foot motion in university-level ballet dancers

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