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Comorbidities in Drivers with Parkinson Disease
No full textPrevious studies have shown that comorbidities have an impact on driving performance in older adults. No study has established the relationships between comorbidities and driving in persons with Parkinson disease (PD). The aims of this study were (1) to report the types of comorbidity in a group of 111 drivers with PD and (2) to identify whether the comorbidity associated with PD is a predictor of overall fitness-to-drive decisions, crashes, and validity duration of driving license. Results showed that 72 participants (64.9%) had only Parkinson disease, and 39 (35.1%) participants had one or more medical conditions in addition to PD. The most frequent comorbidities were visual disorders (26.4%), heart and blood disorders (16.2%), neurological disorders other than PD (11.8%), and locomotor disorders (11.8%). Contrarily to what we expected, we did not find any significant associations between comorbidities and overall fitness-to-drive decisions, car crashes, or validity duration of driving license. We conclude that in this sample of drivers with PD, comorbidity was not a significant predictor of overall fitness-to-drive decisions
Eye Glance Analysis of the Surrogate Tests for Driver Distraction
No full textThe purpose of this study was to examine the eye glance patterns of Detection Response Tasks (DRTs) for assessment of driver distraction during simulated driving. Several types of DRTs across visual, tactile and haptic modalities were used to investigate driver distraction by the ISO Driving Distraction working group. As part of the working group, we conducted a simulated driving study examining driver performance while engaging the primary driving task with visual-manual or auditory-verbal secondary tasks. Results of eye glance analysis showed that the visual DRTs increased visual load in driving more than the tactile DRT. Subsequently, the visual DRTs marginally increased the total glance time for forward view by 6.27 seconds and significantly increased the detection response time by 135.79 ms than the tactile DRT. As for the secondary tasks, the visual-manual secondary task yielded significantly longer total eye-offthe-road time (effect size = 50.75 ms), as well as DRT response times than the auditory-verbal ones time (effect size = 55.85 ms). This study allowed us to examine the relationships between rated situational awareness, DRT performance, and glance patterns, yielding insights into the relationship between objective task performance measures and subjective ratings
Feedback from Naturalistic Driving Improves Treatment Compliance in Drivers with Obstructive Sleep Apnea
No full textAs part of a study in drivers with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), we conducted a randomized clinical trial to assess whether individualized feedback can increase compliance with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy. After completing 3.5 months of naturalistic driving monitoring, OSA drivers were randomized either to receive an intervention, which was feedback regarding their own naturalistic driving record and CPAP compliance, or to receive no such intervention. In the week immediately after the intervention date, drivers receiving feedback (n=30) improved their CPAP usage by an average of 35.8 minutes per night (p=0.008; 95% CI=9.6, 62.0) to a mean level of 296 minutes. By contrast, CPAP usage in the non-feedback group (n=36) decreased an average of 27.5 minutes per night (p=0.022; 95% CI=4.0, 51.0) to a mean level of 236 minutes. The mean group-specific changes were higher (better) in the feedback group than in the non-feedback group during the first, second, and third weeks of follow-up (p0.25 in all cases). Our study suggests that CPAP compliance can be increased using individualized feedback, but that follow-up feedback sessions or reminders may be necessary for sustained improvement
Validation of a Cognitive Screening Battery to Predict Fitness-to-Drive in Individuals with Multiple Sclerosis: A Preliminary Report
No full textIn a previous study, we identified five cognitive tests that together predicted the outcome of a comprehensive driving evaluation of 44 individuals with multiple sclerosis (age = 46 ± 11 years, 84% females) with 91% accuracy, 70% sensitivity, and 97% specificity. In this study, we sought to validate the predictive accuracy of the five tests in a different cohort of individuals with multiple sclerosis. Sixty-three participants (age = 49 ± 9 years, 89% females) were administered the five cognitive tests. Participants were also administered a standardized practical onroad driving test. Performance on the road test was judged by completing a 16-item checklist of very important driving skills. A raw score of 45 or more out of 50 maximum points was classified as “pass” and below 45 as “fail”. Performance on the five cognitive tests was used to predict the pass/fail outcome of the on-road test. Study results showed that all five variables each had significant association with the on-road test raw score. The five tests together explained 44% of the variance of the pass/fail classification. Participants’ “pass” or “fail” performance on the road test was predicted with 83% accuracy, 67% sensitivity, and 85% specificity. The short battery of five tests appears to be a valid predictor of fitness-to-drive of individuals with multiple sclerosis and more accurate at predicting individuals who will pass the on-road evaluation (85% specificity) than those who will fail (67% sensitivity)
Commercial Driver Medical Exams: Relationships Between Body Mass Index and Comorbid Conditions
No full textThere are an estimated 5.7 million Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) drivers in the United States in 2012. Health and Safety of CMV drivers are of high consequence group because of: occupational risks from the size and speed of their vehicles, frequently poor health status, poor health care utilization, and the large impact of truck crashes on public health and safety. CMV drivers pass a commercial driver medical examination (CDME) to maintain licensure. CDME examiners document multiple potentially disqualifying health conditions. CMV drivers reportedly have poor health status, which may be attributed to lifestyle and occupational factors (e.g., improper diet, inadequate physical activity, poor sleep hygiene, shift work), yet few data are reported analyzing relative importance and relationships of these factors. Methods- CDMEs conducted between 2005 and 2012 among 88,246 commercial drivers were analyzed. Associations between measured Body Mass Index (BMI) categories and CDME findings, as well as driver certification were examined. Results- 53.3% of drivers were obese (BMI>30.0 kg/m2 ) with half of those being morbidly obese (BMI>35.0 kg/m2 ). After adjustment for age and gender, obese drivers were statistically significantly less likely to be certified for the full 2 year period and significantly more likely to report many factors including heart disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, nervous disorders, sleep disorders, and chronic low back pain (all p<0.0001). ConclusionsBMI is related to many factors, some of which have been associated with increased crash risk. BMI screening may be a useful tool. Interventions for BMI reduction may have an impact on comorbidities
Effect of Listening to Music as a Function of Driving Complexity: A Simulator Study on the Differing Effects of Music on Different Driving Tasks
No full textResearch in regards to music’s effects on driving performance has been mixed. Previous research has found that music adds to mental workload. Other research has found that high mental workload is related to poorer driving performance in simulation. In this study, mental workload was manipulated by varying visual complexity and type of task (i.e., car-following or braking for unexpected obstacles). It was found that steering variance and delay in carfollowing response were reduced by music under low-workload conditions, while number of collisions with cars and number of lane excursions were increased under high-workload conditions. A practice effect was also found, with participants performing better when listening to music with more practice
Experimental Effects of Pre-Drive Arousal on Teenage Simulated Driving Performance in the Presence of a Teenage Passenger
No full textTeenage passengers increase teenage driving risk, but this may be conditional on events and emotions immediately preceding driving. An experimental simulation study evaluated the effect of pre-drive arousal on risky driving in the presence of a confederate teenage passenger. In a two-by-two between-subjects design, participants were randomized to high or low pre-drive arousal and passenger present or not present conditions. Prior to the drive participants played the Nintendo Wii video game, Rock BandTM. In the higharousal condition participants stood while playing high-energy Beatles songs; in the low arousal condition participants sat while playing low-energy Beatles songs. The manipulation produced differences in arousal by group. Group differences in risky driving were in the expected direction, but were not statistically significant at p = .05 on any of the three outcome measures, which included Failed to Stop (failing to stop at signalized intersections in the dilemma zone), Percent Time in Red (in intersections), and Pass Slow Vehicle (electing to pass a slow vehicle)
Investigating the Interaction between Helmet Field of View and Steering Behavior in a Novel Motorcycle Simulator
No full textWhile helmet wearing reduces the severity of injuries in motorcycle crashes, it may also increase the likelihood of getting involved into a traffic accident through a reduction in the rider’s field of view. We thus investigated the perceptual effects of helmet wearing when riding a motorcycle. The task consisted of negotiating curves in a fixed-based simulator while the helmet visor vertical dimension and need to check the handlebar-mounted speedometer were manipulated. Decreasing the vertical aperture below roughly 30 deg significantly impaired a rider’s ability to maintain their lane position and speed; with the effect of aperture being significantly greater when speedometer checking was required. The present findings provide further support for near/far point models of steering and help to quantify the tradeoff between physical and perceptual effects in helmet design
Pilot Study of Gaze Scanning and Intersection Detection Failures by Drivers with Hemianopia
No full textIn a prior study, intersection detection failures of individuals with hemianopia were strongly associated with inadequate head scanning; however, eye position was not tracked. In this pilot study, we tracked eye and head movements, and examined the relationship between gaze scanning and detection of pedestrians at intersections in a driving simulator. Gaze scan deficits, in particular not scanning sufficiently far into the blind hemifield, were the main reason for detection failures at the extreme edge of the clear-sight triangle in the blind hemifield. In addition, the gaze data revealed detection failures due to looked-but-failed-to-see events. The results suggest that HH drivers may be at increased risk for collisions at intersections
Too Close for Comfort: Evaluating a Reward-Based Approach to Increase Drivers' Headway
No full textTailgating is often implicated as a leading contributor to rear-end collisions but this behaviour is difficult to remediate because drivers are poor at estimating their own headway. Our first goal was to compare novice and fully licensed drivers as they applied existing headway interventions in a driving simulator. Our second goal was to develop an automated, reward-based approach to encourage longer headways. We first compared headway in the driving simulator to previous studies on real-world car following behaviour by asking drivers to (i) achieve what they perceived to be the minimum safe headway or to (ii) employ the common “2 second rule” intervention. We observed a close agreement between the headways achieved in the simulator and those achieved in prior real-world car-following paradigms. We then implemented our headway evaluation system and compared headway across instruction type: (i) minimum safe headway, (ii) “2 second rule”, or (iii) the headway evaluation system. We observed that fully licensed motorists maintained the longest headways while using our system. While drivers reported that the headway evaluation system was easy and appealing to use, they did not foresee continuing to use the device in the future. The current system may be beneficial for driver training applications or to promote situation awareness during the use of automated driver assistance systems such as adaptive cruise control