Physicians’ role in the determination of fitness to drive in patients with Parkinson’s disease: systematic review of the assessment tools and a call for national guidelines

BACKGROUND: Physicians are usually at the forefront when the issue of driving ability is raised by Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients or their family members, even though few have been formally trained in this area. OBJECTIVES AND METHODS: To identify relevant literature on driving assessment tools in patients with PD by performing a systematic review on this subject in order to provide background information for physicians on what types of driving assessment are available, and to delineate the role of physicians in providing fitness to drive recommendations. RESULTS: Of 1,490 abstracts screened, 55 articles fulfilled the selection criteria that investigated assessment of driving ability in PD patients with questionnaires, off-road testing battery, driving simulators, and driving skill tests (on-road tests and naturalistic driving test). Despite different methodology across studies, PD patients were observed to commit more driving errors than controls. Poor driving performance correlated with motor, visual, and cognitive severity. Excessive daytime somnolence was common in PD drivers and the presence of falling asleep while driving was identified to be a significant predictor of car accidents. CONCLUSION: Although the evidence indicated more driving errors among PD drivers as identified by various assessment tools, the extent on how physicians should be involved in the evaluation process and make related recommendations remain unclear. Driving safety is an important public health issue in PD that needs better-defined specific legal and medical guidelines. National guidelines that establish risk assessment protocols involving multidisciplinary assessments are needed to assist physicians in making appropriate referrals for additional evaluations and recommendations when patients are deemed to be unsafe drivers. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40734-016-0043-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.