## 4 Discussion  
Based on the P\({}_{\rm 12M}\) for the total sample, more than every second DT had at least one WMSD in the last 12 months. Furthermore, there were no statistically relevant differences among the dance styles taught and between the sexes. Compared to physical education teachers covering a similar age range, DTs were about twice as likely to experience WMSDs (2.58 vs. 1.23 WMSD/teacher/year) [10]. This seems alarming because the prevalence for physical education teachers in [PERSON] et al. [10] consisted of acute and chronic injuries, and the prevalence values in other studies [8; 9] were significantly lower. Compared to the German general population (15 to 64 years, coverage years 2013) [23], DTs showed neither a significantly higher nor lower occurrence of WMSDs (P\({}_{\rm 12M}\): 61% vs. 66%). Based solely on the occurrence of disorders, the profession of a DT does not appear to be more harmful or more beneficial to health. However, the prevalence rate suggests a clearer need for action. For dancers, the incidence of injury ranged from only 1.03 to 1.29 injuries per 1000 h of dance [14]. It should be noted, however, that even in this younger population, there was a high proportion of overuse injuries (65.9%) [14]. Accordingly, the development of prevention and coping strategies should be given more importance, especially when taking into consideration that most DTs can hardly compensate for financial losses caused by absence [4] and are dependent on working until retirement age [19]. WMSDs were most common in the lumbar spine, closely followed by symptoms in the ankles and feet. Compared with the localisations of acute injuries after occupational accidents among teachers, there were only partial similarities. According to [PERSON] et al. [24], for female DTs, the most common acute injuries were in the ankle area (25%), followed by the hands (16.7%) and for male DTs, in the knees (23.5%) and hands (23.5%). Surprisingly, the lumbar spine (female vs. male: 4.2% vs. 0.0%) and feet (female vs. male: 4.2% vs. 5.9%) were hardly affected at all [24]. It is remarkable that similar regions of symptoms could be shown for DTs as regions of injury for professional dancers. In classical dance, the highest prevalence of injury was recorded in the feet (0.25, 95% CI: 0.04-0.46), cervical spine (0.24, 95% CI: \(-\)0.08-0.56), and ankle joints (0.21, 95% CI: 0.04-0.38) [15]. As already noted by [PERSON] et al. [15], it remains unclear to what extent acute injuries in active careers become chronic WMSDs in retirement. In the sample surveyed, four fifths of the participants stated that they had been professional dancers in the past. A statistical test within the framework of this study could not be carried out due to a too small subgroup without a dance career. In contrast to the acute injuries of professional dancers, where sex-specific differences in frequency in the area of the ankle and spine could be shown [25], these could not be proven for DTs. Furthermore, there were no differences in the localisation-related performance probability among the taught dance styles (Figure 2). The sex and the taught dance styles showed partial correlations with the affected tissue structures of WMSDs. Surprisingly, the male DTs were significantly more often affected by joint disorders and the female DTs significantly more often by muscular disorders (Figure 3). Compared to the acute injuries of professional dancers, a similar trend emerged. The joint structures were most frequently affected before the musculature [25; 26]. Among sports teachers, most acute injuries were found in the musculature (43%) followed by the joints (20%) [10]. It could be observed that mainly endogenous factors were given as causes of disorders before exogenous factors. Similar observations could also be found among physical education teachers. For this group, movement demonstrations and pupil support were recorded as the most common injury circumstances [10].