Strategies to promote health and prevent musculoskeletal injuries in students

OBJECTIVES:
The present investigation was intended to evaluate the effectiveness of a course on health and the prevention of musculoskeletal injuries in future professional musicians, specifically designed for superior-grade students at the High Conservatory of Music of Salamanca, Spain.
METHODS:
Students were taught how to evaluate the possible risks associated with the practice of their instruments. They were provided with information about the most frequent medical problems of musicians, warm-up habits, postural hygiene, effective prevention strategies, and different treatment options for these pathologies. The students were randomly divided into two groups: a control group (n=56) who did not take the course and was evaluated with a questionnaire at the beginning of the academic year and 1 year later, and an experimental group (n=90) who did take the course and was evaluated with three questionnaires (at the beginning of the course, 6 months later, and 12 months after the start of the course).
RESULTS:
While the students in the experimental group improved their body awareness by 91% and the frequency of their injuries decreased by 78%, there was no improvement in the students from the control group at the end of the experiment.
CONCLUSIONS:
The results of our study have demonstrated the effectiveness of this type of course and show that such courses should be included in the academic curriculum of superior conservatories.