Physical Rehabilitation Through Telehealth for an Ankle Sprain: A Randomized Controlled Trial

The rationale is to give ankle sprain patients access to an athletic trainer (ATC) via telehealth so that patients can receive the gold standard of physical therapy rather than relying on pain medication. Specific aims include comparing a 2-week telehealth intervention to the usual care for treating pain and disability; medication consumption; and the feasibility, acceptability and appropriateness of each intervention. We hypothesis, compared to the usual care, participants receiving telehealth will have less pain and disability, take fewer medications and report positive feedback. A single-blinded, randomized control trial will assign 50 ankle sprain patients (15-35 years) discharged from the emergency department to two equal groups (Telehealth, usual-care). The telehealth intervention includes 5-live video sessions with an ATC providing education about injury management, long-term health and therapeutic exercises. The usual care group will follow their physicians’ orders. Separate group-by-time (baseline, post-intervention, 1-month follow-up) repeated-measures ANOVAs will examine pain (Visual Analog Scale), disability (Foot and Ankle Ability Measure), consumption of medication and the feasibility (Feasibility of Intervention Measure), acceptability (Acceptability of Intervention Measure) and appropriateness (Intervention Appropriateness Measure) of both interventions. Our expected outcomes will illustrate the value of receiving rehabilitation via telehealth by an ATC for an ankle sprain.