The majority of older people are active drivers today. In 2011, well over 86 percent of people 65 and older were drivers. That means that more than one out of six drivers on the road in the United States are 65 and older. Most older people are safe drivers, but as they age they may experience more crashes and suffer higher injury and fatality risks. Moreover, as people age they are more likely to use multiple medications. Yet current research on the impact of various medications on the driving behaviour, let alone the crash risks, of older people is sparse and contradictory. Moreover, it is hard to separate the impact of the basic medical problems that create the need for medications from the impact of medications themselves. In addition, older people differ markedly in their individual responses to medical problems or medication. Finally, older drivers frequently self-regulate their driving behaviour to respond to perceived problems in driving, possibly including negative reactions to their medications. All of these factors make it difficult to understand how medications directly impact driving safety. The overall study examines the relationships between a wide variety of medical problems and medications on the one hand, and the driving behaviour and mobility of older people on the other. This report provides baseline data on what is currently known or can be identified about these relationships from two nationally representative studies: * 2009 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS); and, * 2011 National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS). The objective in this report is to understand and synthesize the information that already exists on medical problems, medication use, and older driver behaviour. To do so, data was tabulated from these two surveys to create a portrait of senior driver behaviour. Doing so establishes the context for a second, forthcoming, report that will examine the relationship between driving behaviours and senior medical conditions, characteristics, and attitudes. As such, it is not sought to engage statistical significance testing in this report because the policy relevant investigation is more appropriate for our upcoming multivariate analyses. (Author/publisher) For more information on the LongROAD Study, see http://www.longroadstudy.org/
Samenvatting