Abstract
Objective
Previous research has suggested that the affective symptom cluster in ImPACT can be used to screen for mood-related depressive symptoms in college athletes in place of a standalone mood measure (Riegler, Guty & Arnett, 2019). However, examining the clinical utility of a mood measure that additionally assesses for non-affective depression symptoms should be explored.
Method
Division II college athletes (n = 1,209) completed ImPACT and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) at their first annual pre-participation baseline assessment (mean age = 19.28, 37% female). ImPACT symptoms were divided into four symptom clusters: physical, sleep, cognitive, and affective.
Results
Mean affective symptom cluster score was 0.51 while mean PHQ-9 total score was 1.32. Ninety (7.44%) of the 1,209 athletes fell above the cutoff for mild depression on the PHQ-9. The sleep symptom cluster was the best individual predictor of PHQ-9 total score (R2 = .202, p < .001) compared to the affective symptom cluster (R2 = .147, p < .001), physical symptom cluster (R2 = .124, p < .001) and cognitive symptom cluster (R2 = .145, p < .001). The individual ImPACT symptom of “fatigue” accounted for the most individual variance in PHQ-9 total score (R2 = .158, p < .001).
Conclusions
These results suggest there is clinical utility in utilizing a stand-alone mood measure to assess dysphoria that presents in a sleep-related manner as opposed to a purely affective manner.