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

NCT ID: NCT00996398

Last Updated: 2009-10-16

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 14 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2009-05-31
• Study Completion Date: 2009-09-30

Brief Summary

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.

Detailed 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.

Conditions

Knee Joint Position Sense

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: CROSSOVER
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Cold water immersion

14°C ± 1°C for the cold water immersion for 30 minutes to the level of the umbilicus

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Tepid water immersion

Intervention Type: OTHER

28°C ± 1°C for the cold water immersion for 30 minutes to the level of the umbilicus

Interventions

Tepid water immersion

28°C ± 1°C for the cold water immersion for 30 minutes to the level of the umbilicus

Intervention Type: OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

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.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 40 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

University of Limerick

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

University of LImerick

Principal Investigators

Alan E Donnelly, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Limerick

Locations

University of Limerick

Limerick, Limerick, Ireland

Countries

Ireland

Other Identifiers

ULREC 09/11

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id