818 EP022 – A balancing act and its significance for injury prevention: neurocognitive performance disparities in patients with chronic ankle instability and healthy controls

Background In sports, lateral ankle sprains (LAS) are frequent, with 40% leading to chronic ankle instability (CAI) with ongoing issues. Past studies have delved into neural and neurocognitive adaptations, but we need more insights to implement in injury prevention. We employed the reactive balance test (RBT) to assess neurocognition and balance. Objective To evaluate the neurocognitive performance of patients with CAI versus healthy controls. We also compared both limbs in patients. Our main hypothesis suggests that CAI patients will show worse neurocognitive outcomes than healthy controls, potentially contributing to CAI development and persistence. Design A retrospective observational case-control study. Setting Controlled laboratory study. Participants We included 27 patients with CAI as well as 21 healthy controls using the International Ankle Consortium guidelines. Interventions The independent variables in this study are the participants' case status, categorised as patients with CAI or healthy controls, and whether one of both limbs was affected with CAI symptoms within the patient group. Main Outcome Measurements The main outcome measures are accuracy and visuomotor response time (VMRT). Results Group comparisons showed no main effects for accuracy and VMRT. Analyses of covariance indicated significant interaction effects for accuracy (p = 0.013) but not for VMRT. Patients with CAI exhibited significantly lower accuracy than healthy controls (p = 0.015), with a mean difference of 8.7% (± 3.0). Additionally, no significant differences were observed within the patient group (p = 1.000, mean difference = -1.3 ± 2.6%). Conclusions Patients with CAI showed lower accuracy but similar VMRT to healthy controls during a neurocognitive balance task, indicating impaired neurocognitive function. Future research should gain more insights into which other cognitive domains are affected in patients with CAI to grasp this condition's underlying mechanism better.