THE COMPARISON OF LOWER LIMB MUSCLES STRENGTH AMONG ADOLESCENT HOCKEY PLAYERS WITH AND WITHOUT CHRONIC ANKLE INSTABILITY

Abstract

Backgorund and Objectives: Chronic ankle instability (CAI) is recurrent sprain, episodes of giving-way of the ankle joint, pain, swelling and decreased function. Ankle sprain is the most prevalent injury among Malaysian hockey players with 53% of them developing CAI.  : To identify the prevalence of CAI among adolescent hockey players, to evaluate and compare lower limb muscles strength among adolescent hockey players with and without chronic ankle instability.  Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted on 103 adolescent hockey players assessing the presence of CAI using the Identification of Functional Ankle Instability (IdFAI-M) questionnaire and lower limb muscle strength was measured using a hand-held dynamometer (HHD).  Descriptive statistics were performed to summarise the sociodemographic and muscle strength. Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare muscle strength between CAI and without CAI groups. Results: The prevalence of CAI among the participants was found to be 49.5%, significantly higher than in the general adolescent athlete population. The CAI group showed significantly stronger knee flexor in non-dominant (p= 0.040), ankle inversion muscle for dominant and non-dominant (p= 0.022; p=0.045) respectively and eversion muscle strength for non-dominant (p=0.009) compared to the without CAI group with moderate effect sizes. Conclusion: Effective CAI management in adolescent hockey players requires targeted strength training for hip, knee, and ankle muscles, alongside proprioceptive exercises. Larger studies are needed to confirm these findings and optimize injury prevention strategies in sports.