Musculoskeletal Injury in Australian Professional Musical Theatre Shows: A 5-Year Retrospective Observation Study of 2,249 Medical Attention Injuries

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the frequency and trends of musculoskeletal medical attention injuries occurring in Australian professional musical theatre performers over two consecutive Australian city tours. METHODS: Medical attention performance-related injuries were prospectively reported from 269 professional Australian music theatre performers across nine professional music theatre productions from 2015 to 2020. Medical attention injuries were defined as a presentation to physiotherapy for assessment or treatment of a body region that may or may not have resulted in time lost on stage. RESULTS: 844 injuries were reported in City 1 and 776 injuries were reported in the City 2. The proportion of performers reporting injuries in City 1 ranged from 39.5% to 96.4% and in City 2, from 15.4% to 92.9%. Cervical spine injuries (ncity1 = 194, ncity2 = 187) were the most prevalent musculoskeletal presentation to physiotherapy followed by lumbar spine (ncity1 = 124, ncity2 = 117) and thoracic spine (ncity1 = 124, ncity2 = 90). There were more acute injuries reported in City 1 than City 2 (adj residuals = –4.09, p < 0.001) and more persistent injuries in City 2 (adj residuals = 4.09, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Almost half of all injuries requiring medical attention in Australian professional music theatre performers were related to the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine, with an increasing trend of cervical spine injury frequency across show durations. The study suggests a need for targeted injury prevention strategies in this population.