Injury Prevalence and Risk Factors in Professional and Amateur Breakdancers in China: A Cross-Sectional Study

OBJECTIVES: This cross-sectional survey aimed to compare the 24-month injury prevalence between amateur and professional male breakdancers (also known as breakers or B-boys) in China and identify key injury characteristics associated with skill level. This study hypothesized that Chinese professional B-boys have a higher injury prevalence than amateurs and the injury characteristics differ in their association with technical movements and training condition. METHODS: A self-developed 27-item questionnaire covering three domains-basic information, training history, and injury characteristics-was distributed online to male breakers. Participants were classified into amateur (n=468) and professional (n=178) groups using a composite criterion combining self-assessed skill rank and cumulative train¬ing hours. Continuous variables were compared using Mann-Whitney U tests, and categorical variables using chi-square tests with Bonferroni correction for post-hoc pairwise comparisons. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) were applied to analyze injury factors while accounting for within-dancer clustering of multiple injuries. RESULTS: Among the 646 dancers, 584 (90.4%) reported at least one injury, with no significant difference in injury prevalence between the amateur and professional groups (89.3% vs 93.3%, P=0.445). A total of 1,000 injury cases were documented. The most frequently injured sites were the wrist, knee, shoulder, and waist, with shoulder injuries significantly more common in professional dancers (21.3% vs 14.6%, P=0.031). Self-reported contributing factors included insufficient warm-up, fatigue, and perceived deficiencies in basic skills. Over 80% of dancers lacked professional medical support. Exploratory chi-square tests revealed that shoulder, knee, and wrist injuries were related with technical movements; however, these patterns were unadjusted for exposure time and therefore reflect only injury distribution, not movement-specific risk. CONCLUSIONS: Injury prevalence was similarly high in amateur and professional B-boys, with no significant between-group differences. Commonly injured sites and self-reported contributing factors, together with the lack of medical support, highlight the priorities for prevention. The movement-injury patterns warrant further investigation in future prospective studies.