Article

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of a combination of visual biofeedback and
ankle pressure on ankle position sense in elderly adults with and without
impaired ankle joint position sense (JPS). DESIGN: Independent 2 x 3 factorial
design with an experimenter-blind study. SETTING: University motion laboratory.
PARTICIPANTS: Older adults (N=40) were recruited from local community centers.
Among them, 21 elderly subjects had relatively normative score, whereas 19
subjects had impaired ankle position sense. INTERVENTION: Both the normative and
impaired elderly subjects underwent either ankle JPS visual feedback training
alone or a combination of ankle JPS visual feedback training and circumferential
ankle pressure for one 30-minute training session. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The
outcome measures included ankle JPS errors measured in absolute constant error
(ACE) and variable error (VE) during standing at pretest, posttest, and 1-week
follow-up test. A separate repeated measures analyses of variance was performed
to evaluate the differential training effects on ACE and VE, respectively. The
Pearson chi-square test and Bonferroni test were performed. Significance was
assigned at P less than .05 for all analyses. RESULTS: Regardless of intervention
conditions, older adults with and without ankle position sense impairment showed
immediate treatment benefits, which relatively remained stable even at the
follow-up test. These effects were reflected in significant improvements of JPS
accuracy and consistency (P<.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings may suggest that both
interventions were equally effective in increasing ankle JPS accuracy and
consistency in older adults with and without impairments, and therapeutic effects
lasted for a week, reflecting long-term effect.

Langue : ANGLAIS

Tiré à part : OUI