Mental Health in Dancers; an Intervention Study
Condition: Mental Health Impairment; Mental Health; Eating Disorders; Perfectionism; Depression, Anxiety; Coping Behavior; Self Esteem; Body Image; Body Weight
MeSH terms: Body Weight; Depression; Feeding and Eating Disorders
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      International studies reveal high prevalence of eating disorders (ED) and mental health
      issues amongst professional dancers, and the Norwegian National Ballet's house previously
      (2005) reported a lifetime prevalence of ED by 50% amongst female ballet dancers. Mental
      health issues and ED have been acknowledged for several years in most sports; still the same
      do not apply to dance sports. The objective of this study is to improve the knowledge on
      prevalence of mental health issues in professional dancers and the corresponding awareness of
      such among dance teachers. Additional objectives are to evaluate the effect of an
      intervention aimed to improve knowledge on nutrition, recovery strategies and mental health
      literacy among professional dancers and their teachers.
    

Detailed description: 
      It is well documented that professional dancing increases the risk for, or strongly
      associates to, mental health issues like eating disorders, anxiety, and compulsive-obsessive
      disorders. As much as the international sport society has acknowledged the challenges on ED
      in sport, the same do not apply to dance. The point prevalence of ED in the general european
      population is about 0.3-4.0%, with a corresponding prevalence amongst professional dancers of
      12.0-26.5%. Furthermore, the highest risk for ED among dance discipline is found to be within
      ballet. There are no reports on prevalence in Norwegian dancers; however, the Norwegian
      National Ballet's house reports a lifetime prevalence of 50% amongst ballet dancers. Previous
      studies have identified low knowledge and practice on performance nutrition and weight
      regulation strategies among dancers and their teachers. Findings indicates high risk of low
      energy availability, implying a high risk for the many associated negative effects on
      physical and mental health and performance capacity. Additionally, studies finds high levels
      of body dissatisfaction, body weight concern, perfectionism and low self-esteem, and also
      high prevalence of anxiety and depression.

      Several intervention studies finds positive effect on body dissatisfaction, disordered eating
      behaviour, nutritional intake in sport athletes, and also in ballet dancers in the US and
      Canada. Nevertheless, so far there haven't been any intervention in Norwegian dancers.

      The objective with this study is to explore mental health in professional dancers and their
      knowledge on recovery strategies and nutritional needs, and to implement and evaluate the
      effect of an intervention designed to improve these aspects. A group of performance art
      students serves as control to the intervention effect. Additionally this study evaluates the
      knowledge of these issues amongst dancers and how to deal with such issues, in dance
      teachers, and aims to implement and evaluate the effect of an intervention designed to
      improve the knowledge on these aspects.
    

Intervention name(s): Mental health literacy in dancers; Mental health literacy in dance teachers
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Receive a designed informative intervention (3 workshops of 90min each) aimed at improving their knowledge and skills on proper recovery, performance nutrition, and mental health literacy.; Receive a designed informative intervention (3 workshops of 60min each) aimed at improving their knowledge and skills on how to identify and deal with mental health- and nutritional issues in dancers.
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: Professional dancers at the Norwegian University of Dance (NDH) (n=200) and a group of control persons (Oslo National Academy of the Arts) (n=100) are asked to take part in this study. NDH students receive an intervention after pre-tests and are re-evaluated post-intervention and 6 months post-intervention. The art students responds to similar questionnaires at the three evaluation times. Additionally, the dance teachers (n=50) are evaluated pre, post and 6-months post-intervention, receiving a specific intervention designed for teachers on mental health literacy and which actions to take if findings dancers with mental health issues.
Masking: Single (Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: Mental health; Eating disorders; Perfectionism; Body image; Body dissatisfaction; Body appreciation; Depression; Energy availability