Instrumented measures of postural control in college dancers with and without chronic ankle instability

Objectives: To determine whether collegiate dancers with chronic ankle instability (CAI) demonstrated impaired postural control during instrumented measures of single-leg static balance compared to dancers without CAI.Design: Cross sectional design.Setting: University dance studios.Participants: We included N = 39 dance majors from a large, public university. We stratified participants into CAI (n = 20, age = 20 +/- 1.8, IdFAI = 17.3 +/- 5.7, number of sprains = 1.9 +/- 1.1) and Control groups (n = 19, age = 20 +/- 1.2, IdFAI = 2.5 +/- 3.0).Main outcome measures: Participants performed 3 x 10-s single-leg, static balance trials on a pressure mat in two different conditions, foot-flat eyes closed and demi-pointe eyes open. We measured six different time-to-boundary (TTB) measurements during each balance trial and calculated the average of the 3 trials for each condition. Participants also completed the Foot and Ankle Ability Measure (FAAM) sport and activities of daily living (ADL) questionnaires. Results: The CAI group reported greater IdFAI and lower FAAM-ADL and FAAM-Sport scores compared to the control group. We observed no significant differences in TTB measurements between the CAI and control groups during either balance conditions. Conclusions: Instrumented measures of static postural control were not impaired in college dancers with CAI compared dancers without CAI.