Objectives: This study has aimed at identifying prevalence of injury-occurrence in 24 pre-professional-ballet-dancers (females, 16-18 years of age), and identifying the associations between the body-built and prevalence of injuries. Material and Methods: The sample of variables included: body mass, body height, and 3 somatotype characteristics (mesomorph, ectomorph and endomorph) and data on injuries over the preceding year. Results: Dancers were mostly ectomorphic-mesomorph (endomorphy: 2.6±0.54, mesomorphy: 3.99±0.77, ectomorphy: 3.23±0.54). The most commonly injured locations were the foot (17% of all injuries) and ankle (17%). Majority of the injuries occurred while practising but 37% of hip-injuries occurred while performing. Ankle-injuries resulted in longest absence from ballet. Endomorphy was related to ankle-injury (odds ratio (OR) = 1.9, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.4-2.3), ectomorphy to foot injury (OR = 1.7, 95% CI: 1.1-2.9), and body-mass to injury to the toes (OR = 1.7, 95% CI: 1.4-3.1). Conclusions: The results of this study allow for recognizing those dancers who are particularly vulnerable to injuries of certain body location. A more profound analysis of the possible mechanisms that lead to hip-injury during performance is needed. Int J Occup Med Environ Health 2017;30(1):151-159

Background Issues related to knowledge of nutrition and dietary supplementation (DS) are understudied in professional athletes. This study aimed to examine the possible association between knowledge of nutrition and DS (KN&DS) and dietary supplement use (DSU) among professional athletes involved in team sports. Methods The sample comprised professional team-sport athletes ( N = 912, age: 22.11 ± 3.37 years, 356 females) involved in four Olympic sports: basketball ( N = 228), soccer ( N = 324), volleyball ( N = 154), and handball ( N = 206). The participants were tested by previously validated questionnaires to examine their self-perceived competence on nutrition and DS (S/KN&DS), their objectively evaluated (tested) KN&DS (O/KN&DS), sociodemographic and sport-specific variables (predictors), and DSU (criterion). Associations between the predictors and the criterion (No-DSU - Irregular-DSU - Regular-DSU) were determined by multinomial regression analysis for the total sample and separately for the studied sports. Results DSU was found to be less prevalent in older and more successful players. The O/KN&DS and S/KN&DS were positively correlated with DSU, but S/KN&DS was a stronger predictor of DSU than O/KN&DS. Sport-specific associations between predictors and criterion were identified, with stronger correlations in sports with a higher prevalence of DSU. Conclusions Due to the low correlations between O/KN&DS and S/KN&DS in the studied players, this study highlights the necessity for more frequent monitoring of biomarkers of nutritional status and its usage by coaches and practitioners to provide quantitative instruction. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12970-019-0292-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Professional ballet is a highly challenging art, but studies have rarely examined factors associated with injury status in ballet professionals. This study aimed to prospectively examine gender-specific correlates of injury occurrence and time-off from injury in professional ballet dancers over a one-year period. The participants were 99 professional ballet dancers (41 males and 58 females). Variables included: (i) predictors: sociodemographic data (age, educational status), ballet-related factors (i.e., experience in ballet, ballet status), cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking, and consumption of illicit drugs; and (ii) outcomes: injury occurrence and time-off from injury. Participants were questioned on predictors at the beginning of the season, while data on outcomes were collected continuously once per month over the study period. Dancers reported total of 196 injuries (1.9 injuries (95% CI: 1.6–2.3) per dancer in average), corresponding to 1.4 injuries per 1000 dance-hours (95% CI: 1.1–1.7). In females, cigarette smoking was a predictor of injury occurrence in females (OR: 4.33, 95% CI: 1.05–17.85). Alcohol drinking was a risk factor for absence from dance in females (OR: 1.29, 95% CI: 1.01–4.21) and males (OR: 1.21, 95% CI: 1.05–3.41). Less experienced dancers were more absent from dance as a result of injury than their more experienced peers (Mann-Whitney Z: 2.02, p < 0.04). Ballet dancers and their managers should be aware of the findings of this study to make informed decisions on their behavior (dancers) or to initiate specific programs aimed at the prevention of substance use and misuse in this profession (managers).

Globalisation has increased the mobility of people while rapid development of the knowledge economy places human capital at the centre of economic progress. Both result in competition for highly skilled labour among states, particularly the moredeveloped states. The EU has a particular role in this global competition for the highly skilled. It is faced with the ageing of its population. Furthermore, the quest to revitalise the EU's economy by implementing the ambitious Lisbon Strategy requires an additional 700,000 research positions. Lastly, the EU is trying to design a common European policy for economic migration, starting with the Green Paper in 2005. This article aims to contribute to a common policy design in the area of highly skilled temporary migration. It compares the UK and German schemes for highly skilled immigrants (the only two in the EU) with the successful US scheme, still seen as the benchmark for the EU. The findings are twofold. First, there is a set of obligatory characteristics that should be introduced to the schemes to make them more attractive. Second, as the programmes are not the only factors that determine the attractiveness of a respective country, the article argues that an EU common policy for highly skilled migrants would make the EU area more attractive as a whole and therefore increase its competitiveness in the global economy.

Hip hop is a popular form of competitive and recreational sport worldwide, but studies rarely investigate injury prevalence and factors associated with injury occurrence in this sport. This study aimed to prospectively examine injury occurrence in hip hop dancers in a three-month period and to evaluate potential predictors of injury occurrence in hip hop dancers. The participants were 129 competitive hip hop dancers (114 females, 17.95 ± 4.15 years of age). Study predictors were obtained at study baseline and included sociodemographic factors, sport-related factors, previous injury status, anthropometric and body build indices (body height, mass, body mass index, and body composition variables), and dynamic balance performance (obtained by the Star Excursion Balance Test—SEBT). The outcome was injury occurrence, which was prospectively observed once a week by the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center Overuse Injury Questionnaire (OSTRC). During the course of the study, 101 injuries occurred, equating to an annual injury incidence of 312%. On average, each dancer suffered 0.78 injuries (95% Confidence Interval (95% CI): 0.61–0.97) across a study period of three months (0.76 (95% CI: 0.60–0.95) and 0.93 (95% CI: 0.75–1.13), in females and males, respectively; Mann Whitney Z-value: 0.68, p = 0.52). Seventeen percent of dancers suffered multiple injuries, and 49% of all injuries were time-loss injuries. The knee was the most frequently injured body location (42% of all reported injuries), followed by the back region (32%) and the ankle (15%). Previous injury was a strong predictor of injury occurrence (Odds Ratio: 3.76, 95% CI: 1.87–4.59). Lower injury risk was evidenced among those participants who achieved better scores on several SEBT variables, irrespective of gender and previous injury status; with no significant influence of anthropometric and body build variables on injury occurrence. This study highlighted a high injury rate in hip hop dancers. Dancers and coaches should be informed about the certain protective effects of dynamic balance on the prevention of musculoskeletal injury in hip hop in order to assure safe and effective practices. The usage of SEBT as a convenient and cheap testing procedure is encouraged in other dance disciplines.