Use of a Combination of Ankle Pressure and SENSERite System to Treat Older Adults With Impaired Ankle Proprioception: A Single-Blind Experimental Study

Abstract 

You JH, Saliba S, Saliba E. Use of a combination of ankle pressure and SENSERite system to treat older adults with impaired ankle proprioception: a single-blind experimental study.

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 × 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.

Key Words: Feedback, Pressure, Proprioception, Rehabilitation

List of Abbreviations: ACE, absolute constant error, ANOVA, analysis of variance, CAP, circumferential ankle pressure, JPS, joint position sense, ROM, range of motion, VE, variable error