This presentation will focus on how eye health variables and visual sensory function relate to crash frequency in older drivers. Driving is a highly visual task, and thus it might be expected that the higher incidence of visual problems and eye disease in the elderly is a primary cause of their driving difficulty. Our studies indicate that: 1) Eye health and visual sensory status are not strongly predictive of crash frequency, agreeing with earlier studies. However, these variables are strongly related to visual attentional skills which is the strongest correlate to crash frequency. 2) Visual field sensitivity, which is a measure of the integrity of sensory processing throughout the visual field, is crucial for following events in peripheral vision. However, and older driver can have excellent visual field sensitivity, yet still have difficulty using information in peripheral vision, because of a visual attentional problem. 3) Simply being made aware by an eye-care specialist that one has an ocular disease that affects vision was associated with older adults avoiding challenging driving situations (e.g. heavy traffic). These results will be discussed within the context of the model described in Dr. Owsley's presentation (IRRD no 860190). For the full paper, see IRRD No 850526; only the abstract is presented here. (A)
Abstract