Objectives: To measure the clinical, structural and functional changes of an individualised structured cognitive rehabilitation in mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) population. Setting: A single centre study, Malaysia. Participants: Adults aged between 18 and 60 years with mTBI as a result of road traffic accident, with no previous history of head trauma, minimum of 9 years education and abnormal cognition at 3 months will be included. The exclusion criteria include pre-existing chronic illness or neurological/psychiatric condition, long-term medication that affects cognitive/psychological status, clinical evidence of substance intoxication at the time of injury and major polytrauma. Based on multiple estimated calculations, the minimum intended sample size is 50 participants (Cohen’s d effect size=0.35; alpha level of 0.05; 85% power to detect statistical significance; 40% attrition rate). Interventions: Intervention group will receive individualised structured cognitive rehabilitation. Control group will receive the best patient-centred care for attention disorders. Therapy frequency for both groups will be 1 hour per week for 12 weeks. Outcome measures Primary: Neuropsychological Assessment Battery-Screening Module (S-NAB) scores. Secondary: Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) parameters and Goal Attainment Scaling score (GAS). Results: Results will include descriptive statistics of population demographics, CogniPlus cognitive program and metacognitive strategies. The effect of intervention will be the effect size of S-NAB scores and mean GAS T scores. DTI parameters will be compared between groups via repeated measure analysis. Correlation analysis of outcome measures will be calculated using Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Conclusion: This is a complex clinical intervention with multiple outcome measures to provide a comprehensive evidence-based treatment model. Ethics and dissemination The study protocol was approved by the Medical Research Ethics Committee.

This study assessed the validity (construct validity) and reliability (internal consistency) of the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery Screening Module (S-NAB) in detecting mild cognitive deficit/alteration in multicultural, multilingual, and multiethnic mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) population of Malaysia. S-NAB and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) data from 114 patients with mTBI (93 males; 21 females) aged 18 to 60 years old were obtained at University Malaya Medical Center, Malaysia. The mean age was 28.17 ± 8.57 years and mean education years was 12.40 ± 2.01. Convergent validity was assessed between S NAB domain scores and MoCA total scores by using Pearson’s correlation and internal con sistency was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha. Acceptable internal consistency (a .70) was found for Attention, Language, and Memory domains but weak internal consistencies (a < .50) were found for Spatial and Executive Function domains. There were positive but weak correlations between S-NAB and MoCA. These findings provide some support for the application of S-NAB in assessing mild cognitive deficits of mTBI population in a Malaysian setting.