| Description |
Research has highlighted medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS) as a very common overuse injury for runners of all levels as well as military personnel. Studies have demonstrated that conservative treatment such as strengthening and taping or bracing techniques help to decrease the pain associated with MTSS, however no study has compared strengthening alone to kinesiology taping (KT) with strengthening and "shin splint" taping with stretching with high school athletes in any sport. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of strengthening in combination with two different supportive taping techniques compared to strengthening only programs on high school athletes from different sports. The strengthening program in combination with taping was hypothesized to decrease the pain symptoms observed with MTSS. The study is an experimental, between-group design, with 11 high school participants (ages 14 - 18), randomly assigned to control and experimental groups. Pain level of current MTSS symptoms was measured according to a Visual Analog Scale (VAS) pre-, mid- and post intervention. A 5-week program consisting of 4 stretching and strengthening exercises, with 2 groups receiving "shin splint tape" or KT tape for practice and games, was implemented. A 3x3 one-way ANOVA was used to detect significant differences in pain level between groups. Results reveal statistically significant (P < 0.05) findings were observed at the mid point of the intervention with positive significance for exercise only (EO) (P = 0.038) compared to kinesiology tape and exercise (KTEO) and EO (P = 0.012) compared to MTSS tape and exercise (MTEO) and again post intervention positive significance for MTEO (P = 0.035) compared to KTEO. In conclusion, MTEO intervention had a greater decrease in pain compared to KTEO. Based on the results EO and MTEO interventions could be an effective preventative and treatment protocol for MTSS. |
