Patient-Reported Outcomes and Perceived Confidence Measures in Athletes With a History of Ankle Sprain.

CONTEXT: Patient-reported outcome measures (PROs) and functional performance tests are recommended in the National Athletic Trainers' Association's position statement on the prevention and management of ankle sprains during the return-to-play process. Evaluating perceived confidence may be another valuable method to evaluate an athlete's readiness to return-to-play following an ankle sprain.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the relationship between PROs and perceived confidence when performing functional performance tasks in high school athletes with a history of ankle sprain.

DESIGN

Descriptive study.

SETTING

Public high school.

PATIENTS OR OTHER

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 25 high school student-athletes (6 males and 19 females, age 16.2 [1.1] y, height 169.3 [7.7] cm, mass 63.2 [9.8] kg).

INTERVENTION(S): None.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The Cumberland Ankle Instability Tool, visual analog scale (VAS) for pain, Identification of Functional Ankle Instability, and Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia-11 were completed by all participants. Participants then completed the weight-bearing lunge test; star excursion balance test; lateral, up-down, and triple hop tests; the single-leg vertical jump; and Southeast Missouri agility test and were asked to report their confidence in completing each task using a VAS with anchors of "no confidence" and "complete confidence." Pearson r correlations were calculated between the PROs and the confidence VAS scores of the functional tests.

RESULTS

Moderate to strong negative correlations were identified between pain VAS measures and confidence VAS measures for all functional tests except the star excursion balance test and vertical jump. Moderate negative correlations were found between Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia-11 scores and perceived confidence during the star excursion balance test and vertical jump. Finally, a moderate positive correlation was identified between Cumberland Ankle Instability Tool scores and perceived confidence measures during the Southeast Missouri agility test.

CONCLUSIONS

High school athletes with a history of ankle sprain demonstrated significant correlations between several PROs and perceived confidence during various functional performance tests. The value of perceived confidence measures when making return-to-play decisions after ankle sprains warrants further investigation.