Ankle disk training has been used as an exercise in sports medicine clinics to help protect against ankle sprains. This study investigated the effects of ankle disk training on the contraction pattern of the anterior tibialis, posterior tibialis, peroneus longus, and flexor digitorum longus muscles in a simulated ankle sprain. Twenty adults were recruited and divided into a control group and an experimental group. A platform with a trapdoor was used to simulate a lateral ankle sprain. Electromyographic data were recorded from each subject in pretraining and posttraining tests. The experimental group underwent ankle disk training for 8 weeks between the pretraining and posttraining tests. In the pretraining test, the four muscles started to contract simultaneously; in the posttraining test, the contractions of the anterior and posterior tibialis muscles were delayed. This delay favors the correction of excessive ankle inversion. This study examined the effects of one form of proprioceptive training on muscle reaction times, and its results may explain why such training can help protect against ankle sprains.

Context The extent to which patients take chronic pain medications as prescribed is not well studied, and there are no generally agreed-upon measures. The Quantitative Analgesic Questionnaire (QAQ) is a new instrument designed to comprehensively document patient-reported medication use, generate scores to quantify it (by individual drug, class, and/or overall), and compare it (qualitatively and/or quantitatively) to the regimen as prescribed. Objectives The aim of this study was to describe the development and preliminary validation of the QAQ. Methods The QAQ was studied in a convenience sample of 149 HIV-infected participants. Results We found that the QAQ scores computed for participants’ chronic pain medication regimens were valid based on their correlation with: 1) patient-reported pain intensity (r=0.38, P<0.001); and 2) experienced pain management physicians’ independent quantification of the regimens (r=0.89; P<0.001). The QAQ also demonstrated high inter-rater reliability (r=0.957; P<0.001). Detailed examination of the QAQ data in a subset of 34 participants demonstrated that the QAQ revealed suboptimal adherence in 44% of participants, and contained information that would not have been gleaned from review of the medical record alone in 94%, including use of over-the-counter medications, and quantification of “as needed” dosing. The QAQ also was found to be useful in quantifying change in the medication regimen over time, capturing a change in 50% of the participants from baseline to eight-week follow-up. Conclusion The QAQ is a simple tool that can facilitate understanding of patient-reported chronic pain medication regimens, including calculation of percent adherence and generation of quantitative scores suitable for estimating and tracking change in medication use over time.

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