Citation

Rosenfeld M, Goverover Y, Weiss P. Front. Rehabil. Sci. 2022; 3: e1005025.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Frontiers Publishing)

DOI

10.3389/fresc.2022.1005025

PMID

36466937

PMCID

PMC9708717

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Driving is associated with independence, well-being, quality of life, and an active lifestyle. Driving requires cognitive, motor, and visual skills, including self-awareness and processing speed. This study examines whether driver self-awareness, motor processing speed, and cognitive processing speed can predict fitness to drive among individuals referred to occupational therapy evaluation due to concerns about their driving ability.

METHOD: In this cross-sectional study, 39 participants were referred to off- and on-road driving evaluation to determine their fitness to drive due to changes in health status, advanced age, license renewal requirement, or prior automobile accidents. A registered occupational therapist (OT) classified 23 of the participants as fit to drive and 16 as unfit to drive. Motor and cognitive processing speed were assessed by the Stationary Perception-Reaction Timer and the Color Trails Test, respectively. Driving self-awareness was assessed by comparing the DI and OT evaluations to the participants' estimation of their own on-road driving performance.

RESULTS: The fit-to-drive participants had a better motor and cognitive processing speed than those unfit-to-drive. The unfit-to-drive group overestimated their driving ability, whereas the fit-to-drive group accurately or almost accurately estimated their driving ability. Driving self-awareness was a significant predictor of participants' fitness to drive.

CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the importance of self-awareness for predicting fitness to drive among people at risk for compromised driving skills. Thus, driving self-awareness should be addressed as part of fitness-to-drive evaluations and interventions.

Language: en

Keywords

community; occupational therapy; driving evaluation; older (elderly) drivers; processing speed (PS); self-awarness