DRIVING CESSATION AND ACCIDENTS IN THE ELDERLY: AN ANALYSIS OF SYMPTOMS, DISEASES, COGNITIVE DYSFUNCTION AND MEDICATIONS

The Florida Geriatric Research Program data base was used to address two major research questions: (1) Is the decision to stop driving by older drivers associated with specific symptoms, diseases or medications? (2) Are specific symptoms, diseases or medications associated with an increase in reported traffic accidents in this population? Driving information was available for 1470 subjects which included 874 (59.5%) women and 596 (40.5%) men. It was found that 20.9% of the women and 9.8% of the men had stopped driving. The decision to stop driving was more likely to occur with increasing age and in women. A logistic regression model revealed seven factors of significance in predicting driving cessation: age, female gender, macular degeneration, stroke, hospitalization in the past year, eye problems caused by general health, and parkinsonism. Two factors significant for predicting subjects who were more likely to continue to drive were use of alcoholic beverages and use of magnesium hydroxide. In this investigation, 9.1% of the women and 11.2% of the men reported a traffic accident in the past five years. A logistic regression model revealed four factors of significance in predicting traffic accidents: bursitis, feet or legs cold on exposure to cold, protein in the urine, and irregular heartbeat. Age and gender were not significant factors in predicting traffic accidents in this study. No specific drug ingredients or therapeutic categories of drugs were associated with traffic accidents.