Effect of Prophylactic Ankle-Brace Use During a High School Competitive Basketball Season on Dynamic Postural Control
in Journal of Sport RehabilitationClick name to view affiliation
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Context:
Few studies have evaluated the long-term effects of prophylactic ankle-brace use during a sport season.
Objective:
To determine the effects of prophylactic ankle-brace use during a high school basketball season on dynamic postural control and functional tests.
Design:
Prospective repeated-measures design.
Setting:
High school athletic facility.
Participants:
21 healthy high school basketball athletes (13 girls, 8 boys).
Interventions:
The order of testing was randomized using the Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT) for posteromedial (PM), medial (M), and anteromedial (AM) directions and 3 functional tests (FT) consisting of the single-leg crossover hop, single-leg vertical jump, and the single-leg 6-m hop for time at pre-, mid-, and postseason. After pretesting, the ankle brace was worn on both limbs during the entire 16-wk competitive basketball season.
Main Outcome Measures:
SEBT for PM, M, and AM and 3 single-leg FTs.
Results:
Dynamic postural control using the SEBT and the 3 FTs improved over time, notably from pretest to posttest. The left limb was different from the right limb during the single-leg vertical jump. Effect sizes were large for pretest to posttest for the 3 SEBT directions and 2 of the 3 FTs.
Conclusions:
The 16-wk basketball prophylactic ankle-brace intervention significantly improved dynamic postural control and single-limb FTs over time.
The authors are with the College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV.
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