The correlation between postural control and upper limb position sense in people with chronic ankle instability

Abstract Background Chronic ankle instability (CAI) is attributed to functional instability driven by insufficient proprioception. However, it is not clear whether the deficits are related to global impaired performance or to specific decrease in ankle motor‐control. The aim of this study was to assess the correlation between lower limb postural control and upper limb position sense among people with CAI, in order to further explore the function of the central neural control in people with CAI. Methods Fourteen participants (10 males, 4 females) with self‐reported CAI and 14 age‐ and gender‐matched, healthy controls participated in this study. Each participant completed single‐limb stance postural control tests and shoulder position sense tests. The Overall Stability Index (OSI) was used as a measure of postural stability. The average of the absolute error score (AES) was calculated as a measure of shoulder position sense. Pearson correlations between the scores of the four body sites –lower limb postural stability (preferred/non‐preferred), shoulder (preferred/non‐preferred) were determined separately for each group. Results In the control group, significant correlations were found between the OSI score of the right and left ankles (r = 0.887, p