Browsing by Author "Arjas, Aarni"

Background: Professional ballet dancers are a population at risk of significant mental stress. Substance use, such as smoking and drinking alcohol, is generally accepted to be linked with mental stress, and hence, it is of interest to investigate the patterns of substance use among this population. The aim of this thesis was to describe the rates of alcohol use, smoking and snus use, and their potential relationship with mental symptoms among professional ballet dancers. Methods: A pre-season questionnaire was obtained from a total of 114 dancers (63 women, 51 men) employed in the Finnish National Ballet. The questionnaire included items on amounts of substances used, personal and family health history, as well as a range of mental and somatic symptoms which may reflect areas of mental stress. The analyses were stratified by gender. Descriptive statistics were obtained, and associations of amounts of alcohol, tobacco and snus use with mental symptom scores, as well as between individual substances were investigated using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients. Significant correlations were then further investigated using three different linear regression models. Results: Male dancers used more alcohol, but not significantly more tobacco products than female dancers. Alcohol and tobacco product use were associated among men, but not among women. Mental symptoms among men were particularly connected to snus use, and to a lesser extent to alcohol use, but otherwise there were no associations between substance use and mental symptoms. Conclusions: On average, dancers reported relatively low rates of substance use. There was however high individual variation, and some dancers may use several different substances. Male dancers seem to be at a higher risk of substance use than their female colleagues. Snus use may be particularly connected to mental stress, perhaps owing to the usually non-social setting of snus use.