A Prelimary Study of Differences Between Voluntary and Involuntary Retirement from Driving: Quality of Life and Depression in a Rural Population

Research has revealed a variety of negative health consequences for older adults who stop driving, and with the graying of America, this will be a frequently encountered issue for healthcare providers. The purpose of this study was to determine if there are differences in quality of life and depressive symptoms between former drivers who made the decision to stop driving voluntarily and former drivers who made the decision involuntarily (either in a resistant or in a reluctant manner). In this cross-sectional cohort comparison study, community dwelling older adults were asked to complete questionnaires of depression (using the Geriatric Depression Scale), and quality of life (QOL) (using the Short Form Health Survey-36 questionnaire). Descriptive statistics include data for each individual group separately; separate analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the data to determine if differences in QOL and depression exist between the groups. Results: the small sample (n=18) was predominantly comprised of women (15/18), most were widowed, and the age of participants was 81 years. No differences were detected between the three group means for the GDS, F(2, 15) = .782 (p = .47). Results for the SF-36 revealed differences between the group means in the mental health component summary was F(2,13) = 4.209, (p = .039). Conclusions: There are few differences between involuntary and voluntary former drivers demographics, but differences may exist between involuntary and voluntary former drivers\u27 quality of life