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Fitness & Exercise for Senior Citizens
Senior Citizens Improve Driving Performance with
Physical Conditioning
Drivers committed 37 percent fewer critical
errors after training
June 5, 2007 One answer to improving driving
skills in senior citizens may be exercise. Older people who performed a
physical conditioning program developed by researchers at Yale School of
Medicine were able to maintain or enhance their driving performance,
potentially leading to a safer and more independent quality of life.
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As the number of older drivers increases, concern
about the safety implications have been raised and was a motivator for
the study. Flexibility, coordination and speed of movement have been
linked with older drivers on road performance.
Published in the May issue of Journal of General
Internal Medicine, the study of 178 Greater New Haven area drivers age
70 and older, was led by Internal Medicine Associate Professor Richard
Marottoli, M.D., and colleagues at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System
in West Haven and the Department of Rehabilitation Services at Yale-New
Haven Hospital.
Participants in the intervention group received
weekly visits for 12 weeks by a physical therapist who guided them
through a graduated exercise program directed at physical abilities
potentially relevant to driving based on earlier studies.
They exercised for seven days a week for 15
minutes, focusing on the hips, ankles, knees, shoulders, hands and feet.
Therapists noted gait abnormalities and made recommendations to correct
unsafe or inefficient gait patterns. They encouraged walking for
exercise.
The control group received monthly in-home
education that reviewed general safety issues about home safety, fall
prevention and vehicle care. The intervention group also received these
materials.
Participants completed an on-road driving
evaluation on a mix of highway driving, parking lot maneuvers and low,
medium and high traffic density areas. Either a specially trained
occupational therapist or a former Connecticut Department of Motor
Vehicles (DMV) assessor evaluated participants.
Driving performance was rated on a 36-item scale
that evaluated a number of driving maneuvers and traffic conditions
based on the driving evaluation form used by the CT DMV. Each item was
scored zero for major problem, one for minor problem and two for no
problem. Total scores ranged from zero (worst) to 72 (best).
Participants who received the intervention
increased their road test scores after three months. Intervention
drivers also committed 37 percent fewer critical errors.
We found that this was a safe, well-tolerated
intervention that maintained driving performance, said Marottoli, who
is also Medical Director of the Dorothy Adler Geriatric Assessment
Center at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Having interventions that can maintain or enhance
driving performance may allow clinician-patient discussions about
driving to adopt a more positive tone, rather than focusing on limiting
driving or stopping patients from driving.
Other authors on the study included Heather Allore,
Katy L.B. Araujo, Lynne P. Iannone, Denise Acampora, Margaret
Gottschalk, Peter Charpentier, Stanislav Kasl and Peter Peduzzi.
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