The Musician as (In)Active Athlete? Exploring the Association Between Physical Activity and Musculoskeletal Complaints in Music Students

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Musicians are often compared to athletes because of the physical exertion required to play music. The aim of this study was to explore the physical activity level of music students and to study its relationship with musculoskeletal complaints. A second goal was to assess associations between physical activity and pain, quality of life, and disability. METHODS: This cross-sectional study among third- and fourth-year music students used an electronic survey including measures for physical activity (SQUASH—Short Questionnaire to Assess Health-enhancing physical activity), musculoskeletal complaints (DMQ—Dutch Musculoskeletal Questionnaire), disability (DASH—Disability Arm, Shoulder, Hand questionnaire) and quality of life (Short Form-12). Students were classified as compliers or non-compliers with moderate- and vigorous-intensity physical activity recommendations. Statistical analysis was done using (non)parametric tests (t-test, Pearson chi-square test, Mann-Whitney U-test) and correlational testing. RESULTS: Participants were 132 students, 63.6% female, with a median age of 23 yrs (range 21.3–25.0). 67% reported musculoskeletal complaints in the past 7 days. Their median physical activity level was 6,390 MET-min/wk, and 62% and 10% of the students accomplished recommendations for moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity physical activity levels, respectively. No significant differences were found in prevalence of musculoskeletal complaints between students who met moderate- or vigorous-intensity physical activity recommendations and students who did not. Physical activity level was not associated with musculoskeletal complaints (r=0.12, p=0.26). Higher pain intensity was associated with a lower quality of life (r=–0.53 p<0.01) and higher disability (r=0.43, p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Music students are mainly involved in light- to moderate-intensity physical activities and rarely in vigorous-intensity activities. No correlation was found between physical activity level in the past months and musculoskeletal complaints in music students.

Fit to Perform: A Profile of Higher Education Music Students’ Physical Fitness

“…Variations in physiological signs of stress, energy expenditure, and cardiac demands have been documented and related to musicians' physical characteristics, instrument type, and the tempo of music performed (Iñesta et al, 2008;Williamon et al, 2013;Vellers et al, 2015;Romero et al, 2016), suggesting that the physical demands of performance are multiple and changeable. Consequently, musicians-who are sometimes referred to as 'athletes of the upper body' (Quarrier, 1993;Baadjou et al, 2015)-could benefit from being physically and mentally fit in order to perform at the highest levels.…”

Profiling the Location and Extent of Musicians’ Pain Using Digital Pain Drawings

“…The broad conception of pain found in the performing arts medicine literature is reflected in the variety of measures used to study it. For instance, investigations with musicians often rely on validated questionnaires for the general population, such as the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand (DASH) Questionnaire, which measures upper‐extremity disability and symptoms, the Standardized Nordic Questionnaire, which measures pain location, or the SF‐12, which measure general physical and mental health . Bespoke surveys have also been constructed, and interviews have been used to shed light on experiences of pain within the wider context of professional life .…”

Have musicians’ musculoskeletal symptoms been thoroughly addressed? A systematic mapping review

“…Some 22 studies also investigated the association between different MSS outcomes. Similar to the extent/severity studies, the majority (86%) of the studies of risk factors reported general symptom outcomes[27,28,30,38,[40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50]53,54,60,64,65,69,71,74,76,[79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][91][92][93][95][96][97][106][107][108]110,111,115,116,119,122,125,126,[129][130][131][133][134][135][138][139][140][141][142][154][155]…”