Vitamin D and Injuries in Dancers: A Systematic Review

Abstract

SUMMARY Vitamin D is involved in many different functions in the human body. Despite the well-known benefits of vitamin D and increasing trends of testing and supplementation, there is still a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency worldwide, present in the general but also in the highly-active population such as athletes and dancers. Dancers are at a higher risk of vitamin D deficiency due to their long working hours spent indoors, without exposure to sunlight. The high level of workload and physical demands also put dancers at a high risk of injuries. The aim of this review was to systematically analyze the existing evidence on the association of vitamin D (serum level and supplementation) and injuries in dancers. Medline, Scopus, SportDiscus and Web of Science were searched to identify the available peer-reviewed articles. Five articles met the inclusion criteria (two interventional and three observational studies), three of which additionally investigated the relationship between vitamin D and muscle function. The reported results on positive influence of vitamin D serum level or vitamin D supplementation effect on reduced injury occurrence and enhanced muscular function in adolescent and elite professional ballet dancers are promising but the evidence is limited due to a low number of studies, small samples, and methodological limitations.