Abstract
Background: Iran has serious problems with traffic-related injuries and death. A major reason for traffic accidents is cognitive failure due to deficits in attention. In this study, we investigated the associations between traffic violations, traffic accidents, symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), age, and on an attentional network task in a sample of Iranian adults. Methods: A total of 274 participants (mean age: 31.37 years; 80.7% males) completed questionnaires covering demographic information, driving violations, traffic accidents, and symptoms of ADHD. In addition, they underwent an objective attentional network task (ANT), based on Posner’s concept of attentional networks. Results: More frequent traffic violations, correlated with lower age and poorer performance on the attentional network tasks. Higher symptoms of ADHD were associated with more accidents and more traffic violations, but not with the performance of the attentional tasks. Higher ADHD scores, a poorer performance on attentional network tasks, and younger age predicted traffic violations. Only higher symptoms of ADHD predicted more traffic accidents. Conclusions: In a sample of Iranian drivers, self-rated symptoms of ADHD appeared to be associated with traffic violations and accidents, while symptoms of ADHD were unrelated to objectively assessed performance on an attentional network task. Poor attentional network performance was a significant predictor of traffic violations but not of accidents. To increase traffic safety, both symptoms of ADHD and attentional network performance appear to merit particular attention.
Highlights
Compared to Western European countries and the USA, in Iran, the prevalence rate of traffic-related mortality is high [1,2,3]
As a further contribution to this complex pattern, in a previous study [22], we found that self-rated symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were associated with self-reported traffic violations, and with faster objective performance on visual search and special cueing tasks as proxies for cognitive performance
Among 274 drivers with an average age around 32, higher numbers of self-reported traffic accidents and traffic violations were associated with objectively assessed poorer performance on attentional network tasks, and with higher self-reported symptoms of ADHD
Summary
Compared to Western European countries and the USA, in Iran, the prevalence rate of traffic-related mortality is high [1,2,3]. A total of 274 participants (mean age: 31.37 years; 80.7% males) completed questionnaires covering demographic information, driving violations, traffic accidents, and symptoms of ADHD. They underwent an objective attentional network task (ANT), based on Posner’s concept of attentional networks. Higher symptoms of ADHD were associated with more accidents and more traffic violations, but not with the performance of the attentional tasks. Higher ADHD scores, a poorer performance on attentional network tasks, and younger age predicted traffic violations
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