Instrumented Wobble Board for Testing Functional Ankle Instability

摘要

Lateral ankle distortion is one of the most frequent sports injuries. In approximately 40% of the incidents, the individual will develop chronic ankle instability. Ankle instability is not detected consistently using traditional balance measures and alternative approaches are warranted. It was hypothesized that an instrumented wobble board may serve as a tool to detect people with functional ankle instability. Twenty-two young people with perceived ankle instability and a gender and age-matched control group were included in the study. The participants were standing on one leg for 30 seconds on an instrumented wobble board - with and without visual performance feedback. The primary outcome measures were the standard deviations of the tilt angle in the medio-lateral and the anterior-posterior directions. The tilt variation in medio-lateral direction was significantly larger in the instability group: with feedback 1.65 (0.72) vs. 1.14 (0.31) and without feedback: 1.95 (1.01) vs. 1.20 (0.35). Similar, but not statistically significant, differences were seen in anterior-posterior direction. Participants with chronic ankle instability display increased tilt variation when challenged in one-leg stance on a wobble board. The tilt inclination measured by an instrumented wobble board may serve as a supplementary objective measure for the clinical identification of people with functional ankle instability.