Driving in Alzheimer's disease.
OBJECTIVE
To determine if the impaired mental skills in Alzheimer's Disease (AD) may adversely affect driving ability.


METHODS
Retrospective survey.


METHODS
The Alzheimer's Clinic of the University of Kansas Medical Center.


METHODS
We interviewed 67 AD patients and their families and compared them with 100 elderly, non-spousal controls.


METHODS
The questionnaire was designed to obtain information on their driving habits, with emphasis placed on whether they were still driving, and the number of accidents per year for the past 10 years.


RESULTS
Forty-six of the AD subjects had stopped driving because of safety concerns expressed by the subjects, their families, or health care providers, and two had stopped for other reasons. Only two of the normal controls had stopped driving (P < 0.0001, Chi-square test). Over the past 3 years, the 19 AD subjects who were still driving had 263.2 motor vehicle accidents per million vehicle miles of travel compared with 14.3 for the controls (P < 0.002, Mann-Whitney U test) and 5.7 for the general driving population age > or = 55 years (P < 0.05, Students one group, two-tailed t test).


CONCLUSIONS
This study suggests that a significant traffic safety problem exists in subjects with AD who continue to drive. Efforts should be directed to detect patients with AD whose driving presents a traffic safety problem.
Dubinsky
R M
RM
Department of Neurology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City 66160-7134.
Williamson
A
A
Gray
C S
CS
Glatt
S L
SL
D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D001333:Automobile Driver Examination; D001334:Automobile Driving; D005260:Female; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D007615:Kansas / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D014887:Weather