Driving, Medical Illness, and Medications

Mobility in general but driving in particular is an import part of every adult’s life in American society. It is crucial to overall well-being, autonomy, independence, and self-sufficiency for individuals of all ages. In fact, it has been shown that cessation of driving can have profound effects on some people’s lives, including changes in health, isolation, and depression. But driving is a demanding activity that requires the complex interaction of physical and cognitive skills and abilities. And any reduction or loss of abilities due to injury, illness or disease and/or the medical treatment of such conditions have the obvious potential to adversely affect a person’s driving capacity and thereby increase the risk of accidents, including the risk of death and/or injury to self and others as well as property damage. There have been a number of studies in recent decades that attempted to examine the relationship between medical conditions, medications, and the measurement of driving performance. This chapter provides a look into this relationship in an effort to convey researchers’ areas of interest, the types of studies and methodologies, and findings in terms of the most commonly used measure of safety, that is, accidents, crashes and traffic violations.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9780126312553
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Abstract reprinted with permission from Elsevier.
• Corporate Authors:

  Academic Press

  30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400
  Burlington, MA  United States  01803
• Authors:
  • Galski, Thomas
  • Vacaturo, Loran
  • Galski, Thomas M
• Publication Date: 2009

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: References;
• Pagination: pp 159-185
• Monograph Title: Handbook for the Assessment of Driving Capacity

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automobile driving; Cognitive impairment; Driver performance; Driving; Fatalities; High risk drivers; Human factors in crashes; Medication; Mobility; Traffic crashes; Traffic safety
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01159268
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9780126312553
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 16 2010 2:33PM