Ways to Determine When It's Time to Stop Driving
by Donald H. Kausler for Scripps Howard News Service, 7/1/04

The task of identifying older people whose impaired cognition makes them unsafe drivers is problematic. When people's lives and the freedom to drive hang in the balance, relying on standard driving tests—which depend not only on weather, traffic and road conditions, but the tester's evaluation skills and mood—is too subjective. While driving simulations may be more objective, even they are not the total answer.

Since driving requires cognitive skills--like attention, memory, and visuo-spatial abilities--researchers are now trying to determine whether they can accurately assess a person's driving capabilities by testing these skills.  Studies indicate that neuropsychological test results for drivers with Alzheimer's disease parallel the scores that subjects earn on road tests and driving simulations. Dr. Mark A. Reger of Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System, in Washington, and team, reviewed 27 studies and found that of all the tests, visuo-spatial tests, which evaluate the ability to process visual information into a meaningful whole, are most closely tied to both types of driving tests in assessing a person’s ability to judge distance and maneuver a vehicle's position. The popular Block Design test, for instance, requires test-takers to make designs from blocks that have different whole and half colors on their sides; while the Clock Drawing Test assigns the task of drawing a clock and setting it to 8:20; and the Hooper Visual Organization Test asks participants to use randomly arranged picture pieces to mentally reconstruct and identify  an object. Scores earned on such tests tend to match caregiver evaluations of their patients' driving skills.

(Dr. Donald H. Kausler of the University of Missouri-Columbia, is author of "The Graying of America: An Encyclopedia of Aging, Health, Mind, and Behavior." dkausler2@aol.com)