Driving is an important part of everyday life and represents independence. Activities, both productive and social, may be affected if a person can no longer drive. Older drivers, as a group, have a low crash rate. On the other hand, driving may be affected by medical conditions in this group, for example dementia or stroke, which often call into question a person’s fitness to drive. However, there are older drivers who may benefit from compensatory strategies to prevent driving cessation. The aim of the thesis was to examine driving assessments methods, both off-and on-road tests, and if an intervention may improve driving behaviour for older adults. The specific aims were to: examine how occupational therapists (OTs) are involved in driving assessments in Sweden, what methods are used and how these assessments are performed; determine whether the commonly used cognitive test battery, the NorSDSA, could predict an on-road test results for stroke and cognitive deficits/dementia participants; investigate driving errors characteristic in older drivers without cognitive impairments and identify relationships between off-road and on-road tests results; investigate whether automatic transmission, compared with manual transmission, may improve driving behaviour of older and younger drivers. (Author/publisher)
Abstract