Influencia de la actividad ocupacional en instrumentistas musicales profesionales y la aparición de alteraciones músculo-esqueléticas

Abstract

ABSTRACT The professional musician develops his activity exposing body parts to many repetitive movements with a high intensity of physical activity. Musical practice within the professional environment, involves a variety of physical requirements that are not always best suited to preserve the health of the instrumentalists, and the musculoskeletal system results the most disadvantaged one from this activity. Few studies have investigated the influence of musical practice exclusively in professional musicians. This work consists of two different studies. The first, performed with pianists where we measured the incidence of cervical and upper limb pain in relation to piano practice in high-level professional pianists. The second was developed with professional instrumentalists from an orchestra to analyze the influence of instrumental practice on musculoskeletal disorders. In the first study 46 pianists were involved, establishing a control group of 23 without neck pain and 23 pianists who suffered pain itself. Both groups were assessed using different questionnaires and tests. In the second study 115 musicians were involved and evaluated using different questionnaires. Results: In the first study pianists suffering from neck pain had a smaller hand size (mean: 181.8 ± 11.8) compared to those pianists without neck pain (mean: 188. 6 ± 13.1). Likewise there was a significant positive correlation between the level of neck pain and self-reported disability (P <0.001). Finally it was found that the greater the intensity of neck pain, the lower the Pressure Pain Threshold on bilateral tibialis anterior muscles. In the second study proved a greater presence of cervical pain (76%) among the female gender. Moreover, the musicians who play more than 90 minutes without a break suffer a higher rate of low back pain. Finally, it was found that string players followed by pianists and percussionists are who have higher rates of musculoskeletal disorders.