Measuring Ankle Instability in Pediatric Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease.

ABSTRACT

Children with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease frequently suffer ankle sprain and experience chronic ankle instability; however, no pediatric self-reported measures of chronic ankle instability exist. The aim was to modify and validate the most reliable measure of chronic ankle instability in adults the Cumberland Ankle Instability Tool. The Cumberland Ankle Instability Tool-Youth was tested for reliability, construct validity, and sensitivity to discriminate between 104 children aged 8 to 16 years 31 children with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, 31 unaffected children with a history of ankle sprains, and 42 controls. Children with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease had lower scores compared to unaffected children with a history of sprains (χ2 = 15.10; P < .001) and controls (χ2 = 33.69; P < .001). Scores moderately correlated to visual analog scale scores of ankle steadiness (r s = 0.684; P < .001), and "good" test-retest reliability was identified (ICC2,1 = 0.73). The Cumberland Ankle Instability Tool-Youth demonstrated excellent sensitivity and construct validity, identifying chronic ankle instability as a common problem for children with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.