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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.

Keywords

[RstePub], dancers, ballet, multi-segment foot motion

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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