An Achilles Tendinopathy Educational Intervention for Generalist Physicians Raises Awareness and Improves Knowledge for Treating Ballet Dancers.

Coates, Wendy C.; Sims, Leroy

Background: Achilles tendinopathy can be a devastating condition in ballet dancers. Initial medical evaluation is frequently conducted by generalist physicians, who may lack the perspective of dance and sports medicine focused training and often prescribe complete rest for chronic overuse injuries. In order to provide targeted information about Achilles tendinopathy and the unique needs of elite athletes, such as ballet dancers, we designed an educational intervention that covers relevant anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, clinical presentation and evaluation, and recommendations for initial treatment and sub-specialty referral. The objectives of this study were to determine baseline understanding of Achilles tendinopathy by generalist physicians and to evaluate the efficacy of an educational intervention on their knowledge. Methods: This was a prospective pre- post-test study, to measure improvement in knowledge about Achilles tendinopathy. Emergency Medicine and Primary Care physicians participated in an educational intervention with didactic and hands-on components. Data were analyzed using a two-tailed t -test. Results: Twenty generalist physicians participated. There was significant improvement in their knowledge of Achilles tendinopathy for all our educational objectives (Pre-test: 59% correct answers; post-test: 79% correct answers; P <.0001; 95% CI: 6.32-10.78.). Conclusions: A brief educational intervention leads to increased knowledge of Achilles tendinopathy in generalist physicians. By increasing awareness of Achilles tendinopathy through a standard educational model, we propose that our curriculum can be portable and accessible to all health care providers who encounter dancers and other athletes with Achilles tendinopathy and may serve as a model for expanded education to generalists about other conditions commonly encountered in ballet dancers.

BALLET; BIOMECHANICS; STATISTICAL hypothesis testing; EDUCATIONAL outcomes; ACHILLES tendinitis; ACHILLES tendon; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; PROFESSIONS; LONGITUDINAL method; PRE-tests & post-tests; CONFIDENCE intervals; MEDICAL referrals; SYMPTOMS

Journal of Dance Medicine & Science, 2024, Vol 28, Issue 3, p163

1089-313X

Academic Journal

10.1177/1089313X241238814