Association of cognitive and physical traits with on-road driving performance in Brazilian older adults

IF 3.5 2区工程技术 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, APPLIED

Transportation Research Part F-Traffic Psychology and Behaviour Pub Date : 2025-03-11 DOI:10.1016/j.trf.2025.03.004

Juliana Lima Quintas , Isabela Oliveira Azevedo Trindade , Ludmille Bezerra da Costa , Luciana Lilian Louzada , Wannessa Martins de Almeida , Clayton Franco Moraes , Einstein Francisco Camargos , Patrícia Belchior , Isabelle Gélinas , Otávio Toledo Nóbrega

{"title":"Association of cognitive and physical traits with on-road driving performance in Brazilian older adults","authors":"Juliana Lima Quintas , Isabela Oliveira Azevedo Trindade , Ludmille Bezerra da Costa , Luciana Lilian Louzada , Wannessa Martins de Almeida , Clayton Franco Moraes , Einstein Francisco Camargos , Patrícia Belchior , Isabelle Gélinas , Otávio Toledo Nóbrega","doi":"10.1016/j.trf.2025.03.004","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The global population of licensed older drivers has experienced a notable increase. It is known that physical and cognitive changes are inherent to the aging process. Sensory, cognitive, and physical deficiencies among older adults are associated with poor driving performance and crashes. The impact of cognitive and physical impairments on the fitness to drive remains insufficiently understood in many scenarios, particularly in Brazil. This study evaluated physical and cognitive functions of community-dwelling Brazilian older drivers in domains relevant to driving, and associated these findings with the performance in a standardized on-road test in real urban traffic conditions. A sample of 138 volunteers (mean of 70.7 years) was tested for physical and cognitive functionalities, and then assessed by driving a pre-defined route of 10 km on urban roads. In this study, there was no association between physical functions and the general aptitude for driving, albeit a slower walking speed was found associated with more errors at intersections and lane merging. Regarding cognition, an overall poorer on-road driving performance was associated with lower scores in executive functions, especially in the time management ability, while errors in specific maneuvers were associated with declines in attention capacity, cognitive flexibility, and visuospatial organization ability.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48355,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part F-Traffic Psychology and Behaviour","volume":"111 ","pages":"Pages 177-187"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Transportation Research Part F-Traffic Psychology and Behaviour","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369847825000968","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, APPLIED","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

The global population of licensed older drivers has experienced a notable increase. It is known that physical and cognitive changes are inherent to the aging process. Sensory, cognitive, and physical deficiencies among older adults are associated with poor driving performance and crashes. The impact of cognitive and physical impairments on the fitness to drive remains insufficiently understood in many scenarios, particularly in Brazil. This study evaluated physical and cognitive functions of community-dwelling Brazilian older drivers in domains relevant to driving, and associated these findings with the performance in a standardized on-road test in real urban traffic conditions. A sample of 138 volunteers (mean of 70.7 years) was tested for physical and cognitive functionalities, and then assessed by driving a pre-defined route of 10 km on urban roads. In this study, there was no association between physical functions and the general aptitude for driving, albeit a slower walking speed was found associated with more errors at intersections and lane merging. Regarding cognition, an overall poorer on-road driving performance was associated with lower scores in executive functions, especially in the time management ability, while errors in specific maneuvers were associated with declines in attention capacity, cognitive flexibility, and visuospatial organization ability.

查看原文本刊更多论文

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Transportation Research Part F-Traffic Psychology and Behaviour Multiple-

CiteScore

7.60

自引率

14.60%

发文量

239

审稿时长

71 days

期刊介绍： Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour focuses on the behavioural and psychological aspects of traffic and transport. The aim of the journal is to enhance theory development, improve the quality of empirical studies and to stimulate the application of research findings in practice. TRF provides a focus and a means of communication for the considerable amount of research activities that are now being carried out in this field. The journal provides a forum for transportation researchers, psychologists, ergonomists, engineers and policy-makers with an interest in traffic and transport psychology.