Effect of the Selected Proprioceptive Training on Pain and Proprioception in Pre- and Post-Pubertal 8-16 Year-Old Women with Hypermobility

  Hormonal and physiological changes during puberty may lead women to generalized joint hypermobility followed by proprioceptive deficit. Limited studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of proprioceptive training in pre- and post-pubertal women with generalized joint hypermobility. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effect of proprioception training on pain and proprioception in pre- and post-pubertal women with hypermobility. A total of 28 female volunteers (8–16 years) with generalized joint hypermobility were randomly assigned in to two groups of 1) pre-pubertal and 2) post-pubertal groups. Pain and proprioception was evaluated using Visual Analog Scale and Photogrammetry methods, respectively. All measurements were performed both at the baseline and at end of the eighth week. To analyze the data, Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, paired t-test, and independent t-test were used. The within-group results of the study showed that eight weeks of proprioceptive training caused significant attenuation of pain (Ppre- puberty=0.001, Ppost- puberty=0.001) and improvement of proprioception (Ppre- puberty=0.001, Ppost- puberty=0.001) in pre- and post-pubertal hypermobile women as compared to their baseline. The results revealed changes from pretest (5.78±0.89) to posttest (1.64±0.74) in the pain parameter in pre-pubertal group, and changes in proprioception parameter from pre-test (4.85±0.66) to post-test (1.85±0.86) in pre-pubertal group. However, in post-pubertal group, the pain parameter changed from pre-test (5.35±1.33) to post-test (2.78±1.18) and in proprioception parameter, it changed from pretest (4.71±0.91) to post-test (2.35±1.00). These results were found to be significant too. Also, the pre-pubertal group showed higher difference between baseline and the eighth week in pain and proprioception as compared with post-pubertal group. The present study showed that eight weeks of proprioceptive training in pre- and post-pubertal women with hyper mobility result in decreasing pain and improvement in proprioception. But effectiveness of the proprioceptive training was more in pre-pubertal women; therefore, it is recommended that to lessen side effects of this impairment, proprioceptive trainings be used before puberty in women