THE EFFECT OF KINESIO TAPING ON BALANCE IN INDIVIDUALS WITH CHRONIC ANKLE INSTABILITY

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2014-05
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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of a Kinesio tape (KT) technique on balance performance in subjects with chronic ankle instability 1. Thirty participants with CAI (12 males, 18 females, 20.4±2.0 yrs; 170.8±10.9 cm; 73.4±14.9 kg) from a large Division I institution participated in this study. The Identification of Functional Ankle Instability (IdFAI) questionnaire was used to measure ankle instability. A score of 11 or higher was used to identify who had CAI. Balance was assessed using the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS). The BESS consists of instructing participants to stand unassisted with eyes closed and hands on their hips for 20 seconds during six different conditions. There are two test surfaces, a hard flat surface, and a foam surface. There are also three stances, a double leg stance, a single leg stance, and a tandem stance. The participants were instructed to remain motionless during the balance tasks. The number of BESS errors were counted by the same clinician. All subjects participated in four days of testing. On the first day, participants filled out the informed consent and health history questionnaire, and completed two practice trials of the BESS. The next session was the first day of actual data collection. The participants completed the BESS as a pretest and were randomly assigned to one of two groups: control and KT. Subjects in the control group received no tape application while subjects in the KT group received a tape application. The KT technique consisted of 4 strips of tape pulled at approximately 20 to 35% of full stretch from origin to insertion of the tibialis posterior, tibialis anterior, peroneus longus, and across transverse arch. Subjects were instructed to leave the tape on their lower leg if they were in the KT group, and all subjects returned in 48 hours to complete the BESS again. The tape was then removed and the subjects returned 72 hours later to complete the BESS for a final time. Three repeated measures analysis of variance (RMANOVA) were used to determine if the use of KT had an effect on total BESS scores, flat total BESS scores, and foam total BESS scores. Each analysis included one within subjects factor (time at 3 levels: pretest, 48 hours post application of the tape, and 72 hours post removal of the tape) and one between subjects factor (KT group and control group). Alpha was set at p<.05. We found a significant group by time interaction in total BESS scores (F2,56=6.16, p=.01, ƞp2=.18, power=.87). Specifically, we found a significant improvement in balance in the KT group between the pretest and 48 hours post application of the tape (mean difference: 5.9 ± 0.9 errors, p<.01, 95% CI: 3.7 to 8.2 errors) and between the pretest and 72 hours post removal of the tape (mean difference 4.7 ± 1.0 errors, p<.01, 95% CI: 2.3 to 7.2 errors). There was no significant difference in the control group at any of the time periods (p>.05). Therefore, the application of KT for 48 hours can be beneficial in improving balance impairments in people with CAI. The results of this study are very different than most of the previous literature that has evaluated the effects of KT on balance. One of the reasons for the difference could be that we left the tape on for 48 hours which is significantly longer than all of the other research. All previous studies kept the tape on for 24 hours or less. One of the most clinically important findings of this study is that balance improvements were retained even after the tape was removed for 72 hours.
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