Morrissey, S., Jeffs, S., Gillings, R. et al. (5 more authors) (2024) The Impact of Spatial Orientation Changes on Driving Behavior in Healthy Aging. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 79 (3). gbad188. ISSN 1079-5014
Abstract
Objectives Global cognitive changes in older age affect driving behavior and road safety, but how spatial orientation differences affect driving behaviors is unknown on a population level, despite clear implications for driving policy and evaluation during aging. The present study aimed to establish how spatial navigation changes affect driving behavior and road safety within a large cohort of older adults.
Methods Eight hundred and four participants (mean age: 71.05) were recruited for a prospective cohort study. Participants self-reported driving behavior followed by spatial orientation (allocentric and egocentric) testing and a broader online cognitive battery (visuomotor speed, processing speed, executive functioning, spatial working memory, episodic memory, visuospatial functioning).
Results Spatial orientation performance significantly predicted driving difficulty and frequency. Experiencing more driving difficulty was associated with worse allocentric spatial orientation, processing speed, and source memory performance. Similarly, avoiding challenging driving situations was associated with worse spatial orientation and episodic memory. Allocentric spatial orientation was the only cognitive domain consistently affecting driving behavior in under 70 and over 70 age groups, a common age threshold for driving evaluation in older age.
Discussion We established for the first time that worse spatial orientation performance predicted increased driving difficulty and avoidance of challenging situations within an older adult cohort. Deficits in spatial orientation emerge as a robust indicator of driving performance in older age, which should be considered in future aging driving assessments, as it has clear relevance for road safety within the aging population.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Cognition; Online cognitive assessment; Public health; Road safety |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) > Centre for Spatial Analysis & Policy (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 29 Apr 2024 16:24 |
Last Modified: | 29 Apr 2024 16:24 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/geronb/gbad188 |
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Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:211989 |