Injury surveillance of female adult Zumba® dancers.

Background: We sought to describe the patterns of injury and to establish the injury incidence rates associated with Zumba®.

Methods: Zumba® dancers were invited to complete an anonymous web-based survey containing 13 demographic background and 14 (1 year retrospective) injury history questions. Inclusion criteria stated that the respondents had to be aged 18-64 years and currently involved in group-based classes of Zumba®, either as a registered instructor or class participant. Binomial logistic regression analysis was used to predict the odds of injury during Zumba® and Mann-Whitney Tests were employed to ascertain differences between groups.

Results: The survey response rate was 74%. The final sample of respondents (N.=138; female=100%) included 19 registered instructors and 119 class participants, of which 58% and 16%, respectively, sustained ≥1 injury during Zumba® in the past year. The odds of injury was 7 (95% CI 2-19) times greater (P<0.01) for registered instructors than for class participants. Zumba® dancers had a 17 (95% CI 7-28) % greater (P<0.01) odds of injury for every 1 hour of non-Zumba®-related moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) engagement per week. The injury incidence rate for registered instructors and class participants was 5.7 (95% CI 3.1-8.2) and 3.9 (95% CI 2.5-5.3) injuries per 1000 hours of exposure, respectively.

Conclusions: Zumba® presents a low risk of injury; for registered instructors, the increased risk of injury is likely due to the high total volume of MVPA participated in weekly.