Longitudinal Assessment of Older Drivers in a DMV Setting

A brief battery of functional assessments designed to detect crash riskamong older drivers was developed and evaluated initially in 1999 in Marylandmotor vehicle licensing sites following the routine vision screening exam. Thisbattery contained a number of cognitive tests (e.g., UFOV® subtest 2, the closuresubtest of the Motor Free Visual Perception Test (MVPT), Trails A and B, cuedrecall, delayed recall), and several physical measures (e.g., Rapid Pace Walk,Head and Neck Rotation, Foot Tap, Arm Reach). Older adults (N=4,173; meanage = 69 years) were approached by the staff after license renewal and asked tohelp evaluate the brief battery. Of the 4,173 older adults approached at the fieldsites, 2,114 individuals 55-96 years of age participated. Subsequently, the originalsample of 2,114 participants was invited to come in once again, during their fiveyearlicense renewal cycle, and the functional tests were administered once again.To date, 939 individuals have completed the second screening evaluation. Anexamination of the crash data from the interval between assessments for theseindividuals indicates that the same cognitive measures are predictive of at-faultcrashes. Furthermore, approximately 10% of those passing the assessment in 1999are now failing the assessment in 2004. Performance-based cognitive measuresare predictive of future at-fault motor vehicle collisions among older adults.Cognitive performance, in particular, is a salient predictor of subsequent crashinvolvement among older adults. High-risk older drivers can be identified throughbrief, performance-based measures administered in a DMV setting