Patient-Reported Efficacy 6 Months After a 4-Week Rehabilitation Intervention in Individuals With Chronic Ankle Instability.

OBJECTIVE

To track the patient-reported efficacy of a 4-wk intervention (wobble board [WB] or resistance tubing [RT]) in decreasing symptoms of chronic ankle instability (CAI) at 6 mo postintervention (6PI) as compared with immediately postintervention (IPI).

DESIGN

Randomized controlled trial.

PARTICIPANTS

Fourteen of 21 participants (66.7%) responded to an electronic 6-m follow-up questionnaire (age 19.6 ± 0.9 y, height 1.63 ± 0.18 m, weight 70.5 ± 16.3 kg; 2 male, 12 female; 5 WB, 9 RT). All participants met CAI criteria at enrollment, including a history of ankle sprain and recurrent episodes of giving way.

INTERVENTIONS

Participants completed either RT or WB protocols, both 12 sessions over 4 wk of progressive exercise. WB sessions consisted of five 40-s sets of clockwise and counterclockwise rotations. RT sessions consisted of 30 contractions against resistance tubing in each of 4 ankle directions.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS

Patient-reported symptoms of "giving way" preintervention and at 6PI, global rating of change (GRC) frequencies at IPI and 6PI, and resprains at 6PI were reported descriptively. Changes in global rating of function (GRF) and giving way were compared using Wilcoxon tests, while GRC was compared with Fisher exact test.

RESULTS

All participants reported giving way preintervention, only 57.1% reported giving way at 6PI. Resprains occurred in 21.4% of participants. Giving-way frequency (P = .017), but not GRF or GRC (P > .05), was significantly different at IPI vs 6PI.

CONCLUSIONS

Simple 4-wk interventions maintained some but not all improvements at 6PI. At least 42.9% of participants would no longer meet the current study's CAI inclusion criteria due to a reduction in giving way.