Participant demographics and research questions from 10-years of chronic ankle instability studies: A scoping review

Objectives: To determine ‘who’ and ‘what’ were studied over the previous 10-years as it relates to individuals with chronic ankle instability. Design: Scoping review. Methods: Web of Science™ was used to identify all studies that referenced the International Ankle Consortium selection criteria guidelines. Original research reports which cited adherence to the guidelines were included. Data related to demographic information and outcome measures were synthesized to form a descriptive analysis. Results: A total of 377 studies were included which equated to 11,604 participants with chronic ankle instability. The combined average age of participants was 23.9 years. For measures related to ankle sprain history, participants averaged 4.3 ± 3.7 sprains and 6.2 ± 5.9 years since their first ankle sprain. Across the studies, the number of ankle sprains was reported in 42.7 % of studies and time since first ankle sprain was reported in 10.9 % of studies. Nearly 80 % of studies reported information from at least one validated questionnaire related to ankle instability or ankle function. The primary aim of most studies (44 %) was to determine differences in motor-behavioral impairments between individuals with and without chronic ankle instability. Conclusions: Although many studies indicated that they adhered to the International Ankle Consortium selection criteria for chronic ankle instability, variables related to demographic information were inconsistently reported, which may inhibit the external validity of studies related to chronic ankle instability. In addition, much of the research related to chronic ankle instability pertained to young-adults and aimed to identify various motor-behavioral impairments.