Objective:

to assess the use of bandages or ankle support to avoid ankle sprains.

Methods:

the population studied was the youth footballers of the Uruguayan Football Association and the study conducted was a case-control study. All ankle sprains occurred in official games of the Uruguayan League were recorded during two time periods, and physicians checked whether players who suffered them were wearing a bandage or not. Two controls were included per case.

Results:

38 ankle sprains were diagnosed during the study and they were compared to 72 controls. The study found 16 of them had been bandaged and 22 had not. As to the controls, 37 were bandaged and 35 were not bandaged out of the 72. The risk or probability of suffering an ankle sprain of the bandaged players was 0.301. The risk of sprain of the unbandaged players was 0.385. The odds ratio among the 2 groups was 0.687. 16 of the 53 subjects that were bandaged (30.2%) suffered ankle sprain, while 22 of 57 players that were not bandaged (38.6%) sprained their ankles. The difference observed was not statistically significant (p=0.354).

Conclusions:

in this study ankle bandage did not prove to have a protective effect for ankle sprain.

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