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Updated: Oct 26, 2026
Evaluating Postural Control and Lower-extremity Muscle Activation in Individuals with Chronic Ankle Instability
Published on: September 18, 2020
Ankle Proprioceptive Performance on Increasingly Challenging Functional Tasks in Groups With and Without Chronic
Xueying Wang1,2, Xuerong Shao2,3, Xiaojian Shi4
1Department of Sports and Health Sciences, Academy of Wellness and Human Development, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, HK, China.
Context:
Up to 75% of lateral ankle sprain cases experience long-term impairments and suffer chronic ankle instability (CAI), a condition characterized by impaired ankle proprioception. This study aims to investigate ankle proprioceptive performance during functional tasks with increasing movement control and ankle joint load in individuals with and without CAI.
Design:
Cross-sectional study.
Methods:
Twenty individuals with CAI and 19 healthy controls completed 4 proprioceptive tasks: standing, walking, landing (double-leg drop), and stair descent. In each task, their ability to discriminate between 4 ankle inversion angles was assessed using a task-specific discrimination apparatus.
Results:
CAI participants had significantly lower ankle proprioception scores than controls (mean difference = 0.047, 95% CI, 0.031-0.063). Proprioceptive acuity varied by task (P < .001, ηp2=.345), with no significant group-by-task interaction (P = .220, ηp2=.039). Trend analysis showed a linear improvement in proprioceptive performance with increasing ankle load and challenge in controls (P < .001, ηp2=.685), whereas the CAI group showed both significant linear (P < .001, ηp2=.445) and quadratic (P = .001, ηp2=.430) trends, reflecting a rise followed by a significant downturn as load peaked.
Conclusions:
Both groups improved with greater load, but during stair descent, individuals with CAI exhibited a significant decline. This suggests that proprioceptive processing in CAI is impaired and may be overloaded during highly challenging tasks.
