We read with interest the commentary by Mark Rapoport and colleagues on the physician's role in assessing the safety risk posed by drivers with dementia. In the coming decades, there will be a significant increase in both the number and percentage of older people in the Canadian population. A recent study comparing the motor vehicle crash and fatality rates among older drivers in Finland, a country in which age-related medical screening is strictly enforced, and in Sweden, a country with no such screening, concluded that age-related medical screening has no impact on the safety of older drivers. Other strategies could be used to improve the road safety of older drivers. For example, programs could be introduced that raise drivers' awareness of the problems they are likely to encounter as they grow older and that provide advice on how to recognize and deal with these problems. It might also be possible to provide older drivers with a way of formally assessing their own capabilities. Alternatively, a system requiring some sort of assessment or test of driving abilities following a negative driving event could be introduced. For any such measure to be workable it must be deemed fair by older drivers, many of whom rely on their private car for their personal mobility. Older drivers are not likely to find acceptable any measure that takes away their right to decide when and how they should stop driving. Measures that are presented as promoting rather than restricting the personal mobility of older drivers are most likely to meet with their approval. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting