Cold Water Immersion Does Not Reduce Knee Joint Position Sense in Healthy Participants: a Randomised Cross-over Trial

University of Limerick

Status

Completed

Conditions

Knee Joint Position Sense

Treatments

Other: Tepid water immersion

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT00996398

ULREC 09/11

Details and patient eligibility

About

The aim of this project is to assess the effect of cold water immersion on knee joint re-positional sense in healthy subjects. Cryotherapy, in the form of cold water immersion, had previously been shown to improve athletic performance however, debate exists within the existing literature regarding whether proprioception, in the form or joint position sense, is effected post treatment.

Null hypothesis (H0): Water immersion has no effect on joint position sense (JPS).

Alternate hypothesis (H1): Water immersion has an effect on joint position sense.

Full description

This was a prospective, randomised, cross-over design where volunteers acted as their own controls. The volunteers were immersed at two temperatures (detailed below) and these sessions were separated by six to ten days. The order of the testing was randomly assigned using a random number generator. Ethical approval of the design of this trial was gained from the University of Limerick's Research Ethics Committee and signed informed consent was gained from each participant before any data collection took place.

Enrollment

14 patients

Sex

All

Ages

18 to 40 years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Healthy subjects between the ages of 18 and 40 who complete both a Par-Q test and sign an informed consent form.

Exclusion criteria

Potential subjects who do not complete a Par-Q questionnaire or provide written consent. Subjects with any ankle or knee injuries in the past twelve months.
Students who have a recent history of ear or vestibular conditions.
Subjects who will not be available to attend all sessions.
Subjects who are under the age of 18 or over the age of 40.
Subjects who aren't comfortable with being blind-folded or videotaped during testing.
Those who are sensitive to cold exposure or show signs of a contraindication to cryotherapy.