Skin Health in Dance Focusing on Professional Dance and Latin American Formation Dance during Periods of Different Training Loads

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Quite an original work focusing on the most prevalent dermatoses among dancers. Very neatly presented. It would have been interesting to have a control group of non-dancers in order to evaluate the prevalence compared to the general population.

There are some minor comments I would like to make: 

How was the number of participants decided on?

Statistical significance is reached when comparing the percentage of allergy sufferers amongst both groups (table 2). Is there any explanation for this or is it just casual?

Were there any other dermatoses found in the physical examination that were not included in the study? If so, why were they excluded? 

 

It would have been interesting to evaluate the possible protective effect of dancing against certain dermatoses. ie, HS or psoriasis. Were no cases of these dermatosis found?

In line 287 it is stated: “One explanation for the present result may be the change in the acid mantle as a result of increased sweating during sporting activities.”  This is an explanation for more seborrhea in athletes (which is not something we can infer from the study as there is no control group) but it does not explain why it is found more frequently in latin dancers than in professionals.

“The subjects of the present study were all older than 18 years and were in early adulthood. In this respect, the high prevalence of folliculitis and acne vulgaris is striking” Since adult acne is more common in women a possible explanation could be linked to the high prevalence of female subjects?

Line 312. When discussing clothing and its effect on “acne mecanica”, could different clothing in the different kinds of dances have had an impact on the different prevalences found amongst both groups?

 

Line 445. "The male Latin American formation dancers showed folliculitis of the trunk significantly more often than the female Latin American formation dancers." The higher prevalence of truncal acne amongst males could partly explain this. Del Rosso J.Q., Bikowski J.B., Baum E., Smith J., Hawkes S., Benes V., Bhatia N. A closer look at truncal acne vulgaris: Prevalence, severity, and clinical significance. J. Drugs Dermatol. JDD. 2007;6:597–600

Reference 11 is in a different format than the rest.

Author Response

Dear reviewer, please find attached hereto, the comments to the review.

Thank you very much for the helpful comments.

Sincerely yours,

Eileen M. Wanke

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Please see attached.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

attached hereto, please finde the comments to your review and our thoroughly revised manuscript.

Sincerely yours,

E.Wanke

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Thank you for updating of the manuscript. I feel that you have addressed my initial concerns adequately.