This 3-year follow-up study addressed changes in health, cognitive functioning, and driving status among 37 older drivers and 37 individually matched controls. Initially, the study group had suspended driver's licenses due to traffic violations. The in-person follow-up medical and neuropsychological examinations concerned 20 case participants and 22 controls. Mortality tended to be higher with case participants than with controls (p=.085), and there was more dementia or cognitive impairment with case participants (5/37) than with controls (0/37, p=-027). Initially, crash-involved case participants performed consistently worse on measures of cognitive functioning than did controls and noncrashed case participants and showed greater deterioration over time. Compared to controls, more crash-involved drivers had died (p=0.19) or had stopped driving (p=.040). Because some older drivers with unsafe driving behavior may be in early phases of dementing processes or serious medical conditions, they should be medically and cognitively assessed. (Author/publisher)
Abstract