Assessment of driving safety in older adults with mild cognitive impairment

Background: With population ageing, drivers with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are increasing but there is little evidence available regarding their safety. We aimed to evaluate risk of unsafe on-road driving performance among older adults with mild cognitive impairments (MCI) . Method: The study was a cross -sectional observational study, set in Canberra, Australia . Participants were n on -demented , current drivers (n = 302) aged 65 to 96 years (M = 75.7, SD = 6.18, 40% Female) recruited through the community , primary and tertiary care clinics. Measures included a standardised on- road driving test (ORT), a battery of screening measures designed to evaluate older driver safety (UFOV®, Drive Safe, Multi- D), a neurocognitive test battery and questionnaires on driving history and behaviour. Results: Using Winblad criteria, 57 participants were classified as having mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 2 45 as cognitively normal (CN) . While the MCI group had a significantly lower overall safety rating on the ORT ( 5.61 vs 6.05, p = .03) , there was a wide range of driving safety scores in CN and MCI groups. The MCI group performed worse than the CN group on the off-road screening tests. The best fitting model of predictors of the ORT performance across the combined sample included age, the Multi -D and DriveSafe, classifying 90.4% of the sample correctly . Conclusion: Adults with MCI exhibit a similar range of driving ability to CN adults , although on average they scored lower on off-road and on-road assessments . Driving specific tests were more strongly associated with safety ratings than tr aditional neuropsychological tests