Critical review of self-reported functional ankle instability measures: a follow up.

OBJECTIVE

Determine which ankle instability questionnaire predicts subject's ankle instability status based on a minimum accepted criteria for FAI (MC_FAI).

DESIGN

Cross-sectional study.

SETTING

Large Midwestern University.

PARTICIPANTS

College aged subjects (n = 1127 19.6 ± 2.1 years) from a university population were recruited for this study. Any volunteer, regardless of ankle injury history was included in the study.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

The independent variables were the score on three self-report ankle instability questionnaires: Ankle Instability Instrument, Cumberland Ankle Instability Tool, and Identification of Functional Ankle Instability. Subjects completed the questionnaires for their dominant limb during a single testing session. The dependent variable was created based on the previously established MC_FAI. This was established as at least one ankle sprain and at least one episode of giving way. Data were modeled using a chi-square and multinomial logistic regression. 95% confidence intervals were calculated for the resulting odds ratios.

RESULTS

A test of the full model with all three predictors against MC_FAI revealed that only the IdFAI (X² = 457.09, p = .001) had a significant relationship with the outcome variable. The IdFAI had an overall prediction rate of 87.8%.

CONCLUSIONS

This analysis illustrates that IdFAI is a good overall option for predicting ankle stability status by self-reported questionnaire.