Cognitive Measures, Driving Safety, and Alzheimer's Disease

Abstract

Abstract The performance of nine individuals with Alzheimer's disease (DAT) and nine age-matched controls on neuropsychological testing (NT) was compared to their performance on an on-the-road driving test. Patients with DAT differed significantly from controls on all NT and measures of driving error. None of the NT correlated significantly with driving errors for controls, and only Shipley Institute of Living Scale scores and Southern California Figure-Ground Test scores showed significant correlations with driving errors in subjects with DAT. Thus, although certain general cognitive measures appear to predict some driving errors for those with DAT, NT showed relatively weak overall power in predicting measured driving errors, consistent with most of the literature. Current studies of limited driving situations for elderly people likely emphasize relatively overlearned skills (procedural memory) which may be somewhat independent of many specific NT measures. It is postulated that NT measures will be much more predictive of challenge-related driving performance.