Fisk, G.D., Owsley, C., & Mennemeier, M. (2002). Vision, attention, and self-reported driving behaviors in community-dwelling stroke survivors. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 83, 469-477.
Objective: To elucidate the relationships among vision, attention, driving status, and self-reported driving behaviors in community-dwelling stroke survivors.
Participants: Fifty stroke survivors and 105 older adults without neurological or visual impairment.
Design: A cross-sectional design was used to compare stroke survivors to older adults without stroke on visual measures, attentional measures, and self-reported driving behaviors.
Measures: Visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, peripheral vision, Useful Field of View (UFOV; a test of visual processing speed under divided attention conditions), Behavioral Inattention Test (BIT; a test of visual neglect), and a driving habits questionnaire.
Results: Stroke survivors had impaired contrast sensitivity, peripheral vision, and UFOV compared to older adults in good visual and neurological health. Driving stroke survivors typically had less attentional impairment than nondrivers. Stroke survivors who returned to driving reported difficulty in challenging driving conditions, drove less, and relied more on other people for transportation than older adults without stroke.
Conclusions: These results suggest that vision and attention, both of which are important for driving, are often impaired in stroke survivors. The severity of these deficits could be an influence on driving status and driving behavior. Stroke survivors who return to driving strategically limit their driving exposure and rely on others for transportation, which suggests that they may deliberately self-regulate their driving behavior.