Role of Native Language in Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT) of Youth Athletes

Objective: The aim of this research was to examine the role of native language in the performance of youth athletes on a computerized neuropsychological test battery, the Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Test (ImPACT). Method: The study compared the baseline test scores of 5545 participants whose native language was English versus 195 whose native language was not English. The mean age of the participants was 15.06 years. Results: A multivariate analysis of variance revealed no differences in the five ImPACT Composite scores of the two language groups. Conclusion: Contrary to prior research, one cannot simply expect that non-native English speakers will do more poorly on ImPACT than native English speakers. Further research on the use of ImPACT with other non-native English-speaking youth athletes is recommended.