Objective: To evaluate the influences of sociodemographic factors, estimated head impact exposure, and academic aptitude on ImPACT scores in college athletes. Methods: Data were reported on 18,886 participants (58% male) from the NCAA/DoD CARE Consortium. Race, SES, concussion history, estimated repetitive head impact exposure (eRHIE), and academic aptitude (SAT or ACT score) were our predictors of interest. Cognition was measured using ImPACT composite scores. We evaluated the mediating effects of academic aptitude on sociodemographic predictors and eRHIE on ImPACT scores. We then evaluated a football-only subsample and added age of first exposure to football (AFE) to the model. Males, females, and football players were analyzed separately using structural equation modeling. Results: Academic aptitude was associated with Black/African American race, SES, and each of the ImPACT composite scores. There were significant indirect effects of Black/African American race and SES on all ImPACT composite scores. Academic aptitude fully mediated SES effects and either fully or partially mediated race effects. Contrary to expectation, greater concussion history and eRHIE predicted better ImPACT scores. Conclusions: Academic aptitude, a stable indicator of premorbid cognitive function, consistently and most strongly predicted baseline ImPACT scores in collegiate student-athletes. Concussion and eRHIE history demonstrated a small positive, but non-significant, relationship with cognitive scores at the time of college athletic participation. This study suggests that attempts to characterize cognitive ability across the lifespan must consider premorbid functioning and sociodemographic variables.

中文翻译：

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学术才能在预测大学运动员的ImPACT分数时介导了社会经济地位与种族之间的关系。

目的：评估社会人口统计学因素，估计的头部撞击暴露量和学识对大学运动员ImPACT分数的影响。方法：报道了来自NCAA / DoD CARE联盟的18886名参与者（58％的男性）的数据。种族，SES，脑震荡史，估计的重复性头部撞击暴露（eRHIE）和学识（SAT或ACT得分）是我们感兴趣的预测指标。使用ImPACT综合评分来衡量认知度。我们评估了学术能力对社会人口统计学预测因素和eRHIE对ImPACT评分的中介作用。然后，我们评估了仅橄榄球的子样本，并将首次接触橄榄球（AFE）的年龄增加了模型。使用结构方程模型分别分析了男性，女性和足球运动员。结果：学术能力与黑人/美国黑人种族，SES和每个ImPACT综合得分相关。黑人/非裔美国人种族和SES对所有ImPACT综合评分都有明显的间接影响。学术才能完全介导了SES效应，或者完全或部分介导了种族效应。与预期相反，更大的脑震荡历史和eRHIE预测更好的ImPACT分数。结论：学术能力是病前认知功能的稳定指标，在大学学生运动员中始终如一且最强烈地预测基线ImPACT分数。脑震荡和eRHIE的历史表明，在大学运动参与时，其与认知分数之间存在很小的积极关系，但并不显着。