1. Effects of multidirectional elastic tape on pain and function in individuals with lateral elbow tendinopathy: A randomised crossover trial.
- Author
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Hill, Caitlin E, Heales, Luke J, Stanton, Robert, and Kean, Crystal O
- Subjects
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ELBOW physiology , *TENNIS elbow treatment , *TENDINOPATHY , *GRIP strength , *STATISTICS , *ANALYSIS of variance , *CONFIDENCE intervals , *TAPING & strapping , *ELBOW pain , *TREATMENT effectiveness , *RANDOMIZED controlled trials , *PRE-tests & post-tests , *PAIN threshold , *REPEATED measures design , *DESCRIPTIVE statistics , *SOUND recordings , *INTRACLASS correlation , *CHI-squared test , *RESEARCH funding , *STATISTICAL sampling , *CROSSOVER trials , *BIOMECHANICS , *DATA analysis software , *DATA analysis - Abstract
Objective: To investigate the effects of multidirectional elastic tape on pain and function in individuals with lateral elbow tendinopathy. Study Design: Randomised crossover trial. Setting: Biomechanics laboratory. Subjects: 27 participants (11 females, mean (SD) age: 48.6 (11.9) years) with clinically diagnosed lateral elbow tendinopathy of at least six weeks' duration. Interventions: Tensioned multidirectional elastic tape applied over the wrist, compared to control tape (untensioned), and no tape conditions. Main measures: Pain-free grip strength and pressure pain threshold were recorded at three timepoints for each condition: baseline, post-application, and following an exercise circuit. Change scores were calculated as the post-application or post-exercise value minus baseline. Repeated-measure analyses of variance were used to examine differences between conditions. Results: There were no statistically significant differences in pain-free grip strength between conditions (flexed position: F2,52 = 0.02, p = 0.98; extended position: F2,52 = 2.26, p = 0.12) or across timepoints (post-application vs post-exercise) (flexed position: F1,26 = 0.94, p = 0.34; extended position: F1,26 = 0.79, p = 0.38). Seven participants (26%) increased pain-free grip strength above the minimal detectable change following application of multidirectional elastic tape. There were no statistically significant differences in pressure pain threshold between conditions (affected lateral epicondyle: F1.51,39.17 = 0.54, p = 0.54) or across timepoints (affected lateral epicondyle: F1,26 = 0.94, p = 0.34). Conclusion: Tensioned multidirectional elastic tape may not immediately improve pain-free grip strength or pressure pain threshold in our lateral elbow tendinopathy population; however, individual variation may exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
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