Citation

Frittelli C, Borghetti D, Iudice G, Bonanni E, Maestri M, Tognoni G, Pasquali L, Iudice A. Int. J. Geriatr. Psychiatry 2008; 24(3): 232-238.

Affiliation

Department of Neuroscience, Section of Neurology, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/gps.2095

PMID

18615781

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effects of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) on simulated car driving ability. METHODS: Twenty patients with a probable AD of mild severity (Clinical Dementia Rating, CDR = 1) were compared with 20 subjects with MCI (CD = 0.5), and a group of age-matched neurologically normal controls on a driving simulation task. Measures of driving competence included the length of run, the number of infractions (omission of stop at pedestrian crossings, speed limits violation), the number of stops at traffic lights, the mean time to collision, and the number of off-road events. Results in the driving competence measures were correlated with scores obtained from simple visual reaction times and mini-mental state examination (MMSE). RESULTS: The patients with mild AD performed significantly worse than MCI subjects and controls on three simulated driving measures, length of run and mean time to collision (p < 0.001), and number of off-road events (p < 0.01). MCI subjects had only a significantly shorter time-to-collision than healthy controls (p < 0.001). Simple visual reaction times were significantly longer (p < 0.001) in patients with AD, compared to MCI and healthy controls, and showed a borderline significant relation (p = 0.05) with simulated driving scores. Driving performance in the three groups did not significantly correlate with MMSE score as measure of overall cognitive function. CONCLUSIONS: Mild AD significantly impaired simulated driving fitness, while MCI limitedly affected driving performance. Unsafe driving behaviour in AD patients was not predicted by MMSE scores.

Language: en