Comparing the effective interventions on plantar and ankle proprioception in balance control with and without fatigue

Background and aims: The "postural control" is one of the important abilities to maintain body balance especially during upright stances which is a basic requirement in human life. The role of proprioception in the ankle joint function is essential to maintain balance and function correctly during gate and upright stances. Fatigue is one of the essential factors disrupting the proprioception. The purpose of the present study was to compare effective interventions on plantar and ankle proprioception in balance control with and without fatigue. Methods: Twenty female college students participated in this study. The participants taped the ankle or wore three types of insoles (i.e., normal, 10-degree lateral, and medial wedge) before and after using a fatigue protocol with and without visual information. Their static and dynamic balance was evaluated by the Biodex Balance System (BBS). Data analysis was performed employing the SPSS software. Besides, the significance level was considered at 0.05. Results: The results indicated that application of wedge insoles was associated with a significant reduction of postural sway during static balance position. In addition, the 10-degree lateral wedge insole had a greater effect for improving the balance of non-visual position after using the fatigue protocol. However, there were no significant differences between taping and insole types regarding improving the dynamic balance. Conclusion: Generally, it was inferred that wedge insoles could be used to improve the static balance with and without fatigue. However, Kinesio tape had no effect on static balance. Moreover, results regarding the effectiveness of the studied interventions in relation to the dynamic balance improvement were not significant.