Disrupted Vision Impairs Force Steadiness and Accuracy in Chronic Ankle Instability Patients.

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the effect of visual disruption on submaximal force steadiness and accuracy among three groups including chronic ankle instability patients, lateral ankle sprain copers, and healthy controls.Twenty patients with chronic ankle instability, 20 copers, and 20 matched-healthy controls volunteered to participate in the study. Submaximal force steadiness and accuracy for evertors, invertors, and hip abductors (10% and 20% of their maximal voluntary isometric contraction) were measuredwith anisokinetic dynamometer. All groups performed the tasks with and without stroboscopic glasses.The chronic ankle instability group showed worse steadiness and accuracy in evertors with visual disruption compared to non-visual disruption (p< .0001 and = .02, respectively). Relative to the control group, the chronic ankle instability group showed worse force steadiness and accuracy in evertors (p< .0001, both), worse force accuracy in hip abductors (p = .02),and the coper group also showed worse accuracy in evertors (p = .02).Individuals with chronic ankle instability demonstrated impaired force steadiness and accuracy in evertors and hip abductors compared to healthy controls. In addition, they tended to rely more on visual feedback during the force steadiness task than copers and healthy controls. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.