| Driving Status, Habits and Safety of Older Drivers. |
|
Park, Si Woon , Yoo, Hyun Chul , Lim, Mun Hee , Hwang, Sung Il , Kim, Eun Joo , Choi, Eun Seok , Choi, Kyung In , Lee, Kuem Ju , Kim, Dae Jin |
1Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, National Rehabilitation Center, Korea. yoozest@naver.com
2National Rehabilitation Center Research Institute, Korea. |
| 노인 자동차 운전자들의 운전 실태, 운전 습관 및 안전성 |
|
박시운, 유현철, 임문희, 황성일, 김은주, 최은석, 최경인, 이금주1, 김대진1 |
|
국립재활병원 재활의학과, 1국립재활원 재활연구소 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Abstract |
Objective
To investigate the actual driving status and driving related safety issues of older drivers aged 65 years or older.
Method
We conducted a survey on 56 elderly drivers about driving status, driving habits, safe driver self check list, and medical conditions that may affect safe driving. For comparison, 50 younger drivers aged between third and fifth decades were also surveyed.
Results
The mean age of total 56 elderly drivers was 69.96 years old. Their mean driving time in life was 23.6 years and the purposes of driving were shopping (23.2%), religion activity (21.4%) and leisure (16.1%). Most vehicles were equipped with automatic transmission (83.9%) and power steering (91.1%) and the most common type of vehicle was a sedan (82.1%). The incidence of their motor vehicle accidents in recent 2 years was 21.4%, which was higher than that of control group (18.0%) without statistical significance. The driving habits questionnaire revealed elderly drivers tend to avoid rush-hour traffic, driving at night, and high-traffic roads in 75.0%, 69.6%, 51.8% of subjects respectively. The result of safe driver self check list showed that mean demerit score of elderly drivers was 4.3, which was higher than that of younger drivers (3.2). Elderly drivers had hypertension (33.9%), diabetes mellitus (17.9%), eye disorders (8.9%), heart disease (8.9%), arthritis (8.9%), stroke (7.1%), and respiratory disease (5.4%).
Conclusion
Compared to younger drivers, elderly drivers tend to avoid unsafe driving situations and reported more safety problems in the safe driver self check list. Elderly drivers also had more medical conditions that may affect safe driving, such as eye disorders, cardiovascular, and metabolic diseases. (J Korean Acad Rehab Med 2010; 34: 570-576) |
| Key Words:
Driving status, Habits, Safety, Older drivers |
|
PDF Links
Full text via DOI
Download Citation
