Semi-rigid brace and taping decrease variability of the ankle joint position sense

Abstract

The present study investigated the effect of taping and the semi-rigid ankle brace on ankle joint position sense. Sixteen healthy women (20.8 ± 2.3 years old) actively placed the ankle in a target position. The experimental conditions were: 1) wearing no orthosis device, 2) using semi-rigid brace, and 3) wearing ankle taping. Absolute error (AE) and variable error (VE) were calculated to obtain the joint position sense. We found an interaction effect between condition and target angle at 15o of plantar flexion for the variable VE, which showed smaller errors during the use of taping and semi-rigid brace. In conclusion, the use of ankle joint orthoses, whether taping or semi-rigid brace, decrease the variability of the position sense at 15o of plantar flexion, potentially decreasing ankle sprains occurrence.