RESEARCH REPORT POSTER DISPLAY

ORTHOPEDIC INJURIES AND TREATMENT FOR MUSICIANS. Saito N¹, Akiyama S²; ¹International University of Health and Welfare. ²International University of Health and Welfare

PURPOSE: The purpose of this research is to investigate musician-related injuries,treatments,and these therapeutic responses for musicians in Japan. RELEVANCE: A lot of injuries suffered by instrumental musicians are musculoskeletal disorders on their upper extremities due to overuse or misuse. Therefore,they would receive advices from experts like physical therapists to get rid of the orthopedic problems.In Japan, however, there are few physical therapists who have a chance to treat musician’s disorders at medical institutions. Moreover, knowledge on some of the characteristics of orthopedic abnormalities are not sufficiently spread among medical staffs. PARTICIPANTS: Eighty-one professional musicians who had agreed to the investigation participated in the research. METHODS: Anonymous questionnaire were distributed to instrumental musicians by mail. The survey content consisted of five items and fifteen in total covering symptoms, treatments, and self managements. ANALYSIS: Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and displayed using tables and graphs. RESULTS: Sixty-nine(85%) people had any kinds of body disorder, and forty(58%) people had received treatment until now. Among those 42 people, 83% of them were a practitioner clinic. The most common method of treatment was quasi-medical practice, such as massage, manipulative, acupuncture, and chiropractic. Eighty percents of them improved after the massage, the manipulative, and acupuncture. However, it was only 4% that have recovered completely. Among such body parts as lips and teeth, the mandible, the cervix, the shoulder, the arm, the wrist, the finger, and the low back, most commonly affected parts were found out to be shoulders, a cervix, and low back. Increased frequency of occurrence of symptoms and long-lasting conditions were main reasons to start seeing a doctor. Word-of-mouth information was the most reliable source to select a place to receive treatment. CONCLUSIONS: It was shown that many of musicians in Japan also have occupational chronic injuries. They often received quasi-medical practices that would bring a prompt relief. When they took medical treatment, their personal doctors prescribed more medications and physical medicines, but much less rehabilitations. A lot of musicians start treatment after the symptoms became worse, but few reached a complete cure. IMPLICATIONS: Physical therapists in Japan would be soon working to treat musician’s injuries. I think that physical therapists will have becomes a chance to intervene for them by advising the posture while playing, and methods to build up muscles to treat the cause fundamentally. KEYWORDS: musician, occupational injury, treatment. FUNDING ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This research is not funded. CONTACT: norika@iuhw.ac.jp