Citation

Wood JM, Troutbeck RJ. Transp. Res. Rec. 1994; 1438: 84-90.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1994, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The effects of age and visual impairment on driving and visual performance were investigated for a sample of 46 subjects including 10 young visually normal subjects, 18 elderly visually normal subjects, and 18 elderly subjects with early cataracts. Driving performance was assessed on a closed-road circuit for a series of driving tasks including peripheral awareness, maneuvering, reversing, reaction times, speed estimation, road position, and time to complete the course. Visual performance was assessed using disability glare tests, Pelli-Robson letter contrast sensitivity (CS), a measure of the useful field of view (UFOV), and simple and forced-choice reaction times. The results showed that group (young normals, elderly subjects with normal vision or cataracts) had a significant effect (p < 0.05) on driving and vision. The cataract subjects had poorer driving performance (p < 0.05) than either the elderly or young normal subjects, and the elderly subjects had poorer driving performance (p < 0.05) than the young. Similarly, the visual performance of the elderly subjects (with or without cataracts) was significantly worse (p < 0.05) than that of the young subjects. The elderly subjects had higher disability glare, poorer letter CS, and reduced ability on the UFOV task. These findings indicate that elderly subjects have poorer driving performance than young subjects and those with cataracts have still more difficulties, even though the cataract subjects had visual acuity greater than or equal to 6/12 and were therefore eligible to drive. These changes were reflected by reduced visual performance.

Record URL:
http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1994/1438/1438-011.pdf

Language: en

Keywords

Accident prevention; Highway accidents; Statistics; Sensitivity analysis; Vision; Performance; Human engineering; Subjective testing; Human reaction time