Cross-cultural exploration of baseline ImPACT Quick Test performance among football athletes in Zambia.

Objective: Concussion is a global sport injury; however, this public health issue has yet to be studied across Africa. It is unknown if tests such as the Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Test (ImPACT) Quick Test (QT) are culturally appropriate for implementation as part of a concussion screening protocol in Zambia or other African nations. Study objectives included: 1) establish that Zambian athletes are able to complete the iPad-based ImPACT QT with respect to language or cultural barriers that may exist, and 2) document baseline neurocognitive percentile ranks among Zambian football athletes on the ImPACT QT.

Methods: This study was completed with adult premiere league football athletes in Zambia (n = 125) aged 24.48 ± 5.41. Participants completed the ImPACT QT neurocognitive assessment prior to a preseason practice. Outcome measures were average performance on 3 factor scores: Motor Speed, Memory, and Attention Tracker, presented as percentile ranks using normative data built-into the ImPACT QT.

Results: Zambian athletes scored nearly two standard deviations below the mean on Motor Speed (7 percentile), using North American normative data. However, performance on Attention Tracker (44 percentile) and Memory (56 percentile) was within the average range.

Conclusion: Results of the current study show that Zambian athletes are able to complete the ImPACT QT, despite any language or cultural differences that may exist. In addition, preliminary percentile ranks suggest Zambian football athletes have average scores on Attention and Memory and below average scores on Motor Speed. These data are the first to explore Zambian athletes' performance on a cognitive concussion measure.