| Background. The ability to accurately perceive sensory information about ankle position and reproduce accurate ankle motion during postural (balance) tasks such as unilateral stance or toe-clearance is critical to the safe activities of daily living (ADLs) among the community-dwelling elderly (Gilsing et al., 1995). The aims of this study were: (1) to determine the differential effects of two specialized interventions (proprioceptive feedback training, proprioceptive feedback training (PFT) and proprioceptive feedback training plus circumferential ankle pressure, PFT+CAP) circumferential ankle pressure (CAP) on ankle movement accuracy and consistency; (2) to assess the potential transfer effect of training on balance performance in the community-dwelling older adults with either lower entering proprioceptive acuity (LEPA) or higher entering proprioceptive acuity (HEPA).;Results. A significant main effect of time, F(2, 72) = 251.95, p < .0001,a significant interaction effect of time x group x intervention were found, F(2, 72) = 3.65, p < .04, indicating that the LEPA group showed greater proprioception accuracy (ACE) from the PFT+CAP intervention than from the PFT intervention alone, as compared to the HEPA group across time. Analysis of the interaction effect of group x intervention for the equilibrium score (ES) measure failed to render significance (p < .05), suggesting that balance performance at the transfer test was not effected by the intervention.;Conclusion. The findings suggest that participants with inherently low ankle perception were benefited by the specialized proprioceptive retraining program and may have used peripheral mechanisms for a successful execution of ankle reposition task. Although the two specialized ankle proprioceptive retraining programs (PFT, PFT+CAP) were effective to improve ankle proprioceptive acuity, balance performance was essentially unaffected by either intervention. Different motor control mechanisms required for the ankle reposition and balance tasks may have been employed that were not measured in the current study. It remains possible that the intervention programs were not administered long enough to determine their transfer effects on balance performance, or that the crucial question might have been if balance could be effected when the CAP was still in place. (Abstract shortened by UMI.). |
