CBC news<\/strong> blog post, 28 July 2016: Driving and dementia: A delicate balance<\/a><\/p>\n How to assess the driving fitness of people with slight declines in cognitive abilities<\/p>\n Doctors are required in many Canadian provinces to report to the relevant transportation ministry the medical condition of someone they think shouldn’t be driving. But if the cognitive deficits are minor, that may not happen.<\/p>\n Mary Beth Wighton\u00a0of Southampton, Ont.,\u00a0remembers the day four years ago when her doctor delivered her a devastating one-two combination of bad news.<\/p>\n “She said, ‘I am sorry to tell you but you have probable frontotemporal dementia.’ She explained what it was and then she said, ‘and there is another thing that I need to do immediately, which is to revoke your driver’s licence … effective immediately.'”<\/p>\n Senior drivers need more options: MDs<\/a> Wighton, who was then 44,\u00a0was still in the early stages of dementia.<\/p>\n But research is increasingly showing that even mild\u00a0cognitive\u00a0impairments (MCI), short of dementia,\u00a0have the potential to\u00a0be\u00a0a problem on the road.<\/p>\n Megan\u00a0Hird, a researcher at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, carried out\u00a0tests on 22 patients with MCI and 17 healthy individuals, using driving simulators and brain scans.<\/p>\n “The results of our study showed that patients with mild cognitive impairment … exhibited increased risky driving errors, such as\u00a0collisions\u00a0and lane deviations, compared to cognitively healthy drivers,” she told CBC News.<\/p>\n “This was particularly the case during more\u00a0cognitively\u00a0demanding aspects of driving, such as left-hand turns at a busy intersection.”<\/p>\n 3 times more driving errors<\/strong> Older drivers with dementia unwilling to give up keys<\/a><\/p>\n While people with MCI are at an increased risk of later\u00a0developing Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia, their current impairments in\u00a0daily behaviour are more\u00a0subtle\u00a0\u2014 so people with MCI often continue to carry out all of their routine daily activities, like working, managing their finances, cooking … and driving.<\/p>\n The problem, researchers say, is that driving is an especially complex task, involving attention, memory, executive functioning and the processing of visual information about where objects are.<\/p>\n Currently, doctors are required in many\u00a0provinces to report the medical condition of someone they think shouldn’t be driving to the relevant transportation ministry. But if the cognitive deficits are minor, that\u00a0may not\u00a0happen.<\/p>\n Hird\u00a0says many doctors don’t feel comfortable assessing the driving fitness of their patients. “It’s a very difficult\u00a0conversation to have with someone,” she\u00a0acknowledges.<\/p>\n Senior drivers\u00a0<\/strong> While driving is not a right, losing one’s\u00a0licence can be a major life-changer.\u00a0For instance, someone with a mild cognitive impairment or in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease may not qualify for door-to-door\u00a0municipal\u00a0transit\u00a0services, because they’re not recognized as disabled.<\/p>\n Screening tools<\/strong> Hird\u00a0says the ultimate goal of her research is to\u00a0help\u00a0develop\u00a0tools that doctors can use to screen\u00a0people who may be at risk, because she says there are currently “no valid\u00a0tools” to help them assess the driving fitness of\u00a0patients with mild cognitive impairment.<\/p>\n “Because [driving] is such an important source of independence, you don’t want to be taking away someone’s licence when they are still able to drive safely,” Hird says.<\/p>\n “We need to achieve a balance between maintaining patient independence [and] the safety of the driver and the general public.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New research is showing that even mild cognitive impairments, short of dementia, have the potential to affect driving skills. CBC news blog post, 28 July 2016: Driving and dementia: A delicate balance How to assess the driving fitness of people … Continue reading
\nReport proposes ways to help keep drivers sharper as they age<\/a>
\nCheck driving ability of seniors with dementia: study<\/a><\/p>\n
\nHer study, presented\u00a0Thursday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Toronto, suggests\u00a0that drivers with mild impairment\u00a0in their cognitive ability \u2014 but who haven’t been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or any other kind of dementia\u00a0\u2014 were\u00a0much more likely to commit major\u00a0driving mistakes\u00a0than healthy drivers. In some cases, the error rate was triple.<\/p>\n
\nMost\u00a0provinces require\u00a0senior drivers,\u00a0usually those 75 or 80 or over,\u00a0to undergo some kind of vision\u00a0and\/or written test every two years to assess their driving ability. Depending on the outcome of that initial assessment, a road test may be required.<\/p>\n
\nThe Canadian Medical Association publishes\u00a0a “driver’s guide” for its members\u00a0that doctors can\u00a0use\u00a0to detect and assess health conditions that can affect their patients’ ability to drive, including dementia and mild cognitive impairment.<\/p>\n