2024, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (32): 5217-5224

Effects of different exercise interventions on symptoms and dynamic balance ability of chronic ankle instability: a systematic review and Meta-analysis

Su Yuying1, 2, Li Wei1, Shi Yu1, Pan Changbo1   

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: Clinically, chronic ankle instability has symptoms such as muscle weakness, loss of control and repeated sprains. These symptoms can be effectively improved by means of exercise intervention. Here, we conducted a comprehensive quantitative evaluation of the effects of exercise intervention on chronic ankle instability at home and abroad through Meta-analysis, and examined the moderating effects of different exercise interventions on chronic ankle instability in terms of effect size and exercise dose.
METHODS: CNKI, WanFang, Web of Science, EBSCO-SPORTD and PubMed were searched and screened for relevant literature regarding randomized controlled trials of an exercise intervention program against chronic ankle instability. Included literature was analyzed by using Review Manager 5.3 and Stata-SE 15.
RESULTS: A total of 52 documents were included with 1 880 patients with chronic ankle instability. Meta-analysis showed that exercise intervention could improve the functional score of patients with chronic ankle instability to a large amount. Neuromuscular control training, a 12-week intervention cycle, and two weekly interventions of > 60 minutes are the best protocol for improving instability symptoms in patients with chronic ankle instability. Exercise intervention could improve the dynamic balance of patients with chronic ankle instability to reach the medium equivalent stress. The best exercise program to improve the dynamic balance ability is a combination of neuromuscular control training and hip strength training, with an exercise dose of 30-60 minutes, two or three times per week, for 8 weeks in total.
CONCLUSION: Different exercise forms have a good effect on improving the unstable symptoms and dynamic balance ability of patients with chronic ankle instability, among which neuromuscular control training has a more comprehensive effect on improving chronic ankle instability. It is recommended that a multifunctional combination of training forms be used as a means of rehabilitation rather than a single form of exercise.

Key words: chronic ankle instability, dynamic balance, different exercise forms, Meta-analysis, rehabilitation exercise