Study Design Retrospective cohort study.

Objectives To identify prevalence and characteristics of pain in people with chronic ankle instability (CAI) and determine if there is an association between presence of pain and age and gender.

Background Up to 74% of people with a history of ankle sprain develop CAI. One common residual impairment is reported to be pain, however; it has not been included in models or inclusion criteria for CAI.

Methods and Measures Retrospective data from 1147 participants with CAI (age mean=26.6±10.7, range 10–86 years, 59% female) were collected from previous studies that used the Cumberland Ankle Instability Tool (CAIT) as an assessment tool. Pain was assessed from item 1 of the CAIT which asks participants about pain in their ankles. Responses were divided in to three categories: people who reported constant pain, people who had pain during physical activities and people who reported no pain. Presence of pain was analysed with descriptive statistics and correlation between pain category and gender or age (10–20, 21–30, 31–40,>40 years) was by Chi- Square tests.

Results Of 1147 participants, 60.1% (n=689) reported ankle pain. Of these, 12.4% (n=142) reported constant pain, 47.7% (n=547) pain during physical activities and 39.9% (n=458) no pain. The proportion of constant pain was higher in participants over the age of forty than the other groups (p<0.001). There was no significant difference in presence of pain between genders.

Conclusions The prevalence of pain in people with CAI is high and does not differ between genders. There is large gap in current knowledge about the impact of pain in people with CAI which needs further investigation.