Test-retest reliability of the driving habits questionnaire in older self-driving adults

Abstract

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to investigate the test-retest reliability of the Driving Habits Questionnaire in community-dwelling older self-drivers. [Subjects and Methods] Seventy-four participants were recruited by convenience sampling from local rehabilitation centers. This was a cross-sectional study design that used two clinical measures: the Driving Habits Questionnaire and Mini-mental State Examination. To examine the test-retest reliability of the Driving Habits Questionnaire, the clinical tool was measured twice, five days apart. [Results] The Driving Habits Questionnaire showed good reliability for older community-dwelling self-drivers. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the four domains of dependence (0.572), difficulty (0.871), crashes and citations (0.689), and driving space (0.961) of the Driving Habits Questionnaire indicated good or high internal consistency. Driving difficulty correlated significantly with self-reported crashes and citations and driving space. [Conclusion] The results of this study suggest that the Driving Habits Questionnaire is a reliable measure of self-reported interview-based driving behavior in the community-dwelling elderly.

Driving Habits and Reaction Times on a Driving Simulation in Older Drivers With Chronic Heart Failure

“…The driving habits questionnaire (DHQ) [13] is also interviewer-administered. It addresses six domains: current driving status and driving practices (seatbelt use, driving speed, selfassessment of quality of driving); driving exposure (average number of days driven per week, where the participant drives); dependence on other drivers (with whom the subject usually travels in a car); driving difficulty (how the subject drives in different driving situations); driving space (distance the subject typically drives); and self-reported accidents.…”

“…It addresses six domains: current driving status and driving practices (seatbelt use, driving speed, selfassessment of quality of driving); driving exposure (average number of days driven per week, where the participant drives); dependence on other drivers (with whom the subject usually travels in a car); driving difficulty (how the subject drives in different driving situations); driving space (distance the subject typically drives); and self-reported accidents. [13] The DHQ"s results are examined separately and cannot be used as a total score. The questionnaire"s test-retest reliability is high [13] and it has been validated in previous studies investigating the driving habits of patients with chronic disease.…”

Sensitivity and specificity of the safe driving behavior measure and the driving habits questionnaire for older self-drivers

“…These drivers tend to drastically reduce the amount that they drive, since many are retired and have a limited range of everyday and economic activities. Additionally, drivers’ abilities are affected by their normal aging as well as geriatric diseases, such as declines in visual function, attention and processing speed, physical movement, and visual perception, along with cognitive disabilities, diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases1 ) . Therefore, it is necessary to be able to accurately assess driving abilities and to retrain older individuals in order to reduce the risk of motor vehicle collisions.…”

Test-retest reliability of the safe driving behavior measure for community-dwelling elderly drivers

“…Declines in driving performance are associated with a reduction in functional activities, visuoperceptual abilities, and physiological function in older adults, and the number of deaths caused by traffic accidents increases with age 1 ) . Even though the overall number of traffic accidents has continued to decrease, the accident risk of elderly drivers has been increasing, becoming a serious social problem 2 ) .…”

“…Driving is a complex task that requires various underlying elements, such as motor and sensory functions, attention, consciousness, cognitive activities, decision making and vehicle control 1 , 4 ) . Older adults display deteriorations in underlying elements such as strength, coordination, flexibility, attention, memory, decision making, and judgment due to normal aging processes which result in unsafe driving.…”