Driver Rehabilitation in Parkinson's Disease Using a Driving Simulator: A Pilot Study

Parkinson’s disease (PD) impairs driving performance. In this pilot study, four drivers with PD (selected based on poor road driving performance in the past) participated in a rehabilitation program using a driving simulator. Two different training drives (#1- multiple intersections of varying visibility and traffic load, where an incurring vehicle posed a crash risk, #2- various scenarios on decision making, hazard perception and response) were administered in each session (total 3 sessions once every 1-2 weeks) with immediate feedback after the drives. The authors observed reduction in crashes in drive #1 and improved scores on drive #2 in the simulator. In addition, 3 subjects showed marked improvements in their total error counts on a standard road test between baseline and post-training sessions, one subject stayed stable. These findings suggest that their simulator training program is feasible and potentially useful in impaired drivers with PD.

• Corporate Authors:

  University of Iowa, Iowa City

  Public Policy Center
  227 South Quadrangle
  Iowa City, IA  United States  52242-1192
• Authors:
  • Uc, Ergun
  • Anderson, Steven
  • Lawrence, Jessica
  • Dawson, Jeffrey
• Conference:
  • Driving Assessment 2011: 6th International Driving Symposium on Human Factors in Driver Assessment, Training, and Vehicle Design
  • Location: Olympic Valley - Lake Tahoe CA
  • Date: 2011-6-27 to 2011-6-30
• Publication Date: 2011

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: CD-ROM
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 248-254
• Monograph Title: Proceedings of the 6th International Driving Symposium on Human Factors in Driver Assessment, Training, and Vehicle Design, Resort at Squaw Creek, Olympic Valley - Lake Tahoe, California, USA, June 27-30, 2011

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Driver rehabilitation; Driving simulators; Impaired drivers
• Uncontrolled Terms: Parkinson's disease
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01349787
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 16 2011 1:56PM