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Left Turns by Older Drivers With Vision Impairment: A Naturalistic Driving Study

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Older drivers are overrepresented in collisions at intersections while making left turns across oncoming traffic. Using naturalistic driving methods, we evaluated the association between vision impairment and their left-turn characteristics. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: In...

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Autores principales: Swain, Thomas A, McGwin, Gerald, Antin, Jonathan F, Wood, Joanne M, Owsley, Cynthia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8448425/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34549096
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igab026
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author Swain, Thomas A
McGwin, Gerald
Antin, Jonathan F
Wood, Joanne M
Owsley, Cynthia
author_facet Swain, Thomas A
McGwin, Gerald
Antin, Jonathan F
Wood, Joanne M
Owsley, Cynthia
author_sort Swain, Thomas A
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Older drivers are overrepresented in collisions at intersections while making left turns across oncoming traffic. Using naturalistic driving methods, we evaluated the association between vision impairment and their left-turn characteristics. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: In this prospective, observational study, vision impairment as defined by visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, visual processing speed, visual field sensitivity, and motion perception was assessed in drivers ≥70 years old. Data acquisition systems were installed in their personal vehicles recording video and vehicle kinematics. Driving during everyday life was recorded for 6 months. Data analysts evaluated a temporal data window surrounding randomly selected left turns at 4-way intersections. Left-turn traversals and turning behavior were evaluated in terms of age-adjusted associations with vision impairment. RESULTS: The sample consisted of 151 older drivers. The number of turns studied was 473; 265 turns were rated as unsafe traversals, and 201 as problematic turning behavior. Drivers with slowed visual processing speed and visual field impairment were less likely to exhibit unsafe traversals (p < .05); those with worse contrast sensitivity, slowed visual processing speed, and visual field impairment were less likely to exhibit problematic turning behavior (p < .05). DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Using naturalistic driving, our study suggests older drivers with vision impairment exhibit better performance in making left turns than those without deficits, which contradicts older driver studies on left turns using driving simulators and on-road driving evaluations. Our findings suggest more cautious and self-regulatory behavior, which are consistent with older visually impaired drivers’ commonly expressed concerns about their driving difficulties.
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spelling pubmed-84484252021-09-20 Left Turns by Older Drivers With Vision Impairment: A Naturalistic Driving Study Swain, Thomas A McGwin, Gerald Antin, Jonathan F Wood, Joanne M Owsley, Cynthia Innov Aging Original Research Articles BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Older drivers are overrepresented in collisions at intersections while making left turns across oncoming traffic. Using naturalistic driving methods, we evaluated the association between vision impairment and their left-turn characteristics. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: In this prospective, observational study, vision impairment as defined by visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, visual processing speed, visual field sensitivity, and motion perception was assessed in drivers ≥70 years old. Data acquisition systems were installed in their personal vehicles recording video and vehicle kinematics. Driving during everyday life was recorded for 6 months. Data analysts evaluated a temporal data window surrounding randomly selected left turns at 4-way intersections. Left-turn traversals and turning behavior were evaluated in terms of age-adjusted associations with vision impairment. RESULTS: The sample consisted of 151 older drivers. The number of turns studied was 473; 265 turns were rated as unsafe traversals, and 201 as problematic turning behavior. Drivers with slowed visual processing speed and visual field impairment were less likely to exhibit unsafe traversals (p < .05); those with worse contrast sensitivity, slowed visual processing speed, and visual field impairment were less likely to exhibit problematic turning behavior (p < .05). DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Using naturalistic driving, our study suggests older drivers with vision impairment exhibit better performance in making left turns than those without deficits, which contradicts older driver studies on left turns using driving simulators and on-road driving evaluations. Our findings suggest more cautious and self-regulatory behavior, which are consistent with older visually impaired drivers’ commonly expressed concerns about their driving difficulties. Oxford University Press 2021-08-01 /pmc/articles/PMC8448425/ /pubmed/34549096 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igab026 Text en © The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research Articles
Swain, Thomas A
McGwin, Gerald
Antin, Jonathan F
Wood, Joanne M
Owsley, Cynthia
Left Turns by Older Drivers With Vision Impairment: A Naturalistic Driving Study
title Left Turns by Older Drivers With Vision Impairment: A Naturalistic Driving Study
title_full Left Turns by Older Drivers With Vision Impairment: A Naturalistic Driving Study
title_fullStr Left Turns by Older Drivers With Vision Impairment: A Naturalistic Driving Study
title_full_unstemmed Left Turns by Older Drivers With Vision Impairment: A Naturalistic Driving Study
title_short Left Turns by Older Drivers With Vision Impairment: A Naturalistic Driving Study
title_sort left turns by older drivers with vision impairment: a naturalistic driving study
topic Original Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8448425/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34549096
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igab026
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