Abstract

Context: Individuals with chronic ankle instability (CAI) rely more on visual information during postural control due to impaired proprioceptive function. The increased reliance on visual information may increase the risk of injury when their vision is limited during complex sports activities. Stroboscopic glasses may help elicit sensory reweighting during postural control. Therefore, we assumed that the glasses would induce and train CAI patients to reweight sensory information for the somatosensory system during dynamic balance training. Purpose: (1) to identify the effects of the 4-week dynamic balance training on the reliance of visual information during postural control in patients with CAI and (2) to compare the effects of the 4-week dynamic balance with and without stroboscopic glasses on postural control in patients with CAI. Methods: This study was a randomized controlled trial. Twenty-eight CAI patients were equally assigned to one of 2 groups: a strobe group (6 males and 8 females) or a control group (8 males and 6 females). The 4-week dynamic balance training consisted of multiple single-legged exercises. The strobe group wore stroboscopic glasses during the training, but the control group did not. The main outcome measures included the following: self-reported function measures, static postural control (center of posture (COP)-based measures), and dynamic postural control including the Dynamic Postural Stability Index (DPSI), and the Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT). There were 3 visual conditions in the static postural control (eyes-open (EO), strobe vision (SV), and eyes-closed (EC)), and 2 conditions in the dynamic postural control (EO and SV). Two-way randomized block ANOVAs were used to assess changes in postural control in each group and condition by using pretest-posttest mean differences. Results: The strobe group showed a higher difference in COP velocity in medial-lateral direction (VelML) and vertical stability index (VSI) under the SV condition compared with the control group (p = .005 and .004, respectively). In addition, the strobe group had significant decreases in VelML, DPSI, and VSI at the posttest compared with the pretest (p = .0001, .01, and .005, respectively). Conclusion: The 4-week dynamic balance training with stroboscopic glasses appeared to be effective in improving postural control and altering visual reliance in patients with CAI.

Degree

MS

College and Department

Life Sciences; Exercise Sciences

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2020-06-30

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd11669

Keywords

chronic ankle instability, balance training, sensory reweighting, visual reliance

Language

english

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