Are Ankle Braces Effective for Preventing Injuries?
MADISON- Ankle braces are great at preventing athletic injuries. Or are they? In the first study of its kind to focus on high school basketball players, a pair of researchers with University of Wisconsin Sports Medicine will try to answer that question with hard scientific data. They’ll spend the upcoming season tracking ankle brace use among high school basketball players to determine whether the braces reduce injury rates. Fifty high schools across Wisconsin have signed on to participate in the study. At least 20 of the schools will receive lace-up ankle braces, and basketball players at those schools will wear them in all practices and games. The other schools will practice and play as they normally do-some players will wear braces and others won’t. “Ankle injuries are one of the most common types of injuries, especially among high school basketball players,” says Dr. Alison Brooks, a UW sports medicine physician who is heading up the study along with UW sports medicine researcher a
