The older population in Europe, as in the other western societies, is increasing both in absolute and relative terms. This trend is expected to continue in the coming years leading to a rapidly increasing number of older drivers on roads as a consequence. The mean number of elderly drivers on European roads can be approximated to around 12% of all drivers today and around 20% by year 2010. This paper focuses on the preliminary validation results of the first tier cognitive screening battery. It was assumed that the use of a short and easily administered test battery would help the medical doctor in a consulting room or primary health care setting to decide which older drivers should be referred to a specialized driving assessment centre. The purpose of such a screening battery should not be to use it as a conclusive instrument but as a first indicator for further referral. The data considered in this paper were collected over a 10-month period from January to November 2004 at CARA, a department of the Belgian Road Safety Institute since 1987. CARA is the official Belgian centre for determination of fitness to drive and car adaptation. The data consist of the test results of clients who came for an official fitness to drive assessment and who approved to participate in the study (informed consent). All completed the screening battery and a standardized on-road test. Assessors highly experienced in the use of the screening tools (neuropsychologists) and the on-road protocol (occupational therapists) administered the tests. The data of 76 participants tested this way were used for the analyses. Two equivalent pilot studies took place in Greece (HIT) and Sweden (VTI). One of the major questions to be answered in the AGILE study is whether the screening battery proposed by the AGILE consortium could be sufficiently powerful to predict who will fail the on-road test. (Author/publisher)
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