Journal article
Cognitive functioning differentially predicts different dimensions of older drivers’ on-road safety
Accident analysis and prevention, Vol.75, pp.236-244
02/2015
DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2014.12.007
PMCID: PMC4386614
PMID: 25525974
Abstract
•Cognition in aging must be assessed broadly to predict distinct facets of on-road safety.•Memory and set-shifting predicted on-road navigation performance.•Processing speed predicted errors during secondary navigation tasks.•Visuospatial construction predicted baseline safety errors.•Limited evidence of disease-specific deficits in driving safety in AD and PD.
The extent to which deficits in specific cognitive domains contribute to older drivers’ safety risk in complex real-world driving tasks is not well understood. We selected 148 drivers older than 70 years of age both with and without neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer disease–AD and Parkinson disease–PD) from an existing driving database of older adults. Participant assessments included on-road driving safety and cognitive functioning in visuospatial construction, speed of processing, memory, and executive functioning. The standardized on-road drive test was designed to examine multiple facets of older driver safety including navigation performance (e.g., following a route, identifying landmarks), safety errors while concurrently performing secondary navigation tasks (“on-task” safety errors), and safety errors in the absence of any secondary navigation tasks (“baseline” safety errors). The inter-correlations of these outcome measures were fair to moderate supporting their distinctiveness. Participants with diseases performed worse than the healthy aging group on all driving measures and differences between those with AD and PD were minimal. In multivariate analyses, different domains of cognitive functioning predicted distinct facets of driver safety on road. Memory and set-shifting predicted performance in navigation-related secondary tasks, speed of processing predicted on-task safety errors, and visuospatial construction predicted baseline safety errors. These findings support broad assessments of cognitive functioning to inform decisions regarding older driver safety on the road and suggest navigation performance may be useful in evaluating older driver fitness and restrictions in licensing.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Cognitive functioning differentially predicts different dimensions of older drivers’ on-road safety
- Creators
- Nazan Aksan - Department of Neurology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USASteve W Anderson - Department of Neurology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USAJeffrey Dawson - Department of Biostatistics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USAErgun Uc - Department of Neurology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USAMatthew Rizzo - Department of Neurology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Accident analysis and prevention, Vol.75, pp.236-244
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.aap.2014.12.007
- PMID
- 25525974
- PMCID
- PMC4386614
- NLM abbreviation
- Accid Anal Prev
- ISSN
- 0001-4575
- eISSN
- 1879-2057
- Publisher
- Elsevier Ltd
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 02/2015
- Academic Unit
- Neurology; Public Health Administration; Biostatistics
- Record Identifier
- 9983997302202771
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