Assessing Fitness-To-Drive among Older Drivers: A Comparative Analysis of Potential Alternatives to on-Road Driving Test.

Yongjun Shen,Tom Brijs,Onaira Zahoor,Xu Tan,Muhammad Usama

doi:10.3390/ijerph17238886

Abstract

To enable older drivers to maintain mobility without endangering public safety, it is necessary to develop more effective means of assessing their fitness-to-drive as alternatives to an on-road driving test. In this study, a functional ability test, simulated driving test, and on-road driving test were carried out for 136 older drivers. Influencing factors related to fitness-to-drive were selected based on the correlation between the outcome measure of each test and the pass/fail outcome of the on-road driving test. Four potential alternatives combining different tests were considered and three modeling techniques were compared when constructing the fitness-to-drive assessment model for the elderly. As a result, 92 participants completed all of the tests, of which 61 passed the on-road driving test and the remaining 31 failed. A total of seven influencing factors from all types of tests were selected. The best model was trained by the technique of gradient boosted machine using all of the seven factors, generating the highest accuracy of 92.8%, with sensitivity of 0.94 and specificity of 0.90. The proposed fitness-to-drive assessment method is considered an effective alternative to the on-road driving test, and the results offer a valuable reference for those unfit-to-drive older drivers to either adjust their driving behavior or cease driving.

Highlights

The independence, mobility, and freedom provided by driving are highly valued by the elderly.In recent decades, the number of older drivers has increased due to the aging of the population.The involvement of older drivers in crashes has increased
The on-road driving test is generally regarded as the “gold standard” [4,5], but usually has considerable costs in terms of material, manpower, and time [6], and has potential danger for older drivers with impaired driving ability
The fitness-to-drive assessment models were constructed with the variables selected from the results of the functional ability test and the simulated driving test as inputs and the outcome of the on-road driving test as the output

Summary

Introduction

The number of older drivers has increased due to the aging of the population. The involvement of older drivers in crashes has increased. Statistics show that older drivers are over represented in fatal and serious injury crash involvements [1,2]. It is of great significance to assess the fitness-to-drive of older drivers and to recognize those who are unfit-to-drive. The on-road driving test is generally regarded as the “gold standard” [4,5], but usually has considerable costs in terms of material, manpower, and time [6], and has potential danger for older drivers with impaired driving ability. As a result, identifying alternatives to the on-road driving test to assess older drivers’

Methods

Results

Conclusion