Context:
Evidence to support the use of various wrist supports in managing wrist pain during gymnastics activity is needed.
Objective:
To determine the effectiveness of various wrist supports at alleviating chronic wrist pain during gymnastics activity. To determine if pain symptoms and other fac
Design:
Repeated measures design.
Setting:
Gymnastics training facility.
Patients or Other Participants:
Fourteen healthy gymnasts (age = 13 ±1.9 years; height = 146.1 ±10.2cm; weight = 40.1 ±9.7kg ) who had been experiencing wrist pain during gymnastics activity at least six months prior to and at the time this study was conducted.
Intervention(s):
Subjects performed three fundamental gymnastics skills in each of five braced and one non-braced condition. Braced conditions included
Main Outcome Measure(s):
A 100mm un-hatched Visual Analog Scale (VAS) was used to rate the level of wrist
pain in each of the six conditions.
Results:
In all braced conditions, except
for athletic tape (P = 2.06), wrist pain during activity was significantly
reduced (P < 0.05). Only athletic tape and the Ezy®ProBrace with palmar
pad were observed to be significantly different (P < 0.05) at reducing wrist
pain during activity. Factors associated with, and descriptions of, wrist pain
were similar to those reported in previous studies.
Conclusions:
Athletic tape applied circumferentially around the wrist is not an effective intervention when trying to alleviate wrist pain during gymnastics activity. Functional wrist supports significantly reduce pain experienced in the wrists during gymnastics activity.