Introduction

Age-related increases in reaction time (RT) are pervasive. Driver RT is a crucial component of roadway safety. Superior cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is associated with faster RTs on a variety of behavioral tasks. Driver RT, as with any RT measure, is comprised of constituent components that contribute to a total response time (TT). Simple RT (sRT) is comprised of the requisite sensory and central processing of TT. Movement time (MT) is comprised of the requisite movement of a particular behavioral response (e.g., moving your foot from the accelerator to the brake pedal). This study aimed to determine the strongest predictor of constituent components of driver RT on a brake onset test.

Methods

Cross-sectional analysis. Predictor variables included CRF, age and sex. Participants were 50 community-dwelling older adults between the ages of 60 and 77 (mean age = 66.5 years, SD = 4.1). Maximal graded exercise tests were used to assess CRF. A driving simulator was used to assess constituent components of driving-related RT. Results: Findings indicated that CRF was the largest contributor to sRT variance (beta = −0.35, p = 0.03). Sex was the largest contributor to MT (beta = −0.44, p = 0.003) and TT (beta = −0.28, 0.05) variance.

CRF also demonstrated a marginal contribution to TT variance (beta = −0.25, p = 0.08). Age did not significantly contribute to sRT, MT or TT.

Conclusions

Age-related increases in RT can jeopardize roadway safety. Findings from this study demonstrate that a modifiable lifestyle variable may have the ability to reduce roadway risk by improving constituent components of driver RT.

中文翻译：

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出生时的心肺适应性和性别决定了老年人的制动反应时间

介绍

与年龄有关的反应时间（RT）增加普遍存在。驾驶员RT是道路安全的重要组成部分。出色的心肺适应性（CRF）与在各种行为任务上的快速RT相关。与任何RT度量一样，驱动程序RT由构成总响应时间（TT）的组成部分组成。简单RT（sRT）由TT的必要感官和中央处理组成。运动时间（MT）包括特定行为响应的必要运动（例如，将脚从加速器移动到制动踏板）。这项研究旨在确定驾驶员起步测试中驾驶员RT组成成分的最强预测因子。

方法

横截面分析。预测变量包括CRF，年龄和性别。参加者为50位年龄在60到77岁之间的社区居住的老年人（平均年龄= 66.5岁，SD = 4.1）。最大程度的运动测试用于评估CRF。驾驶模拟器用于评估与驾驶相关的RT的组成部分。结果：结果表明，CRF是sRT方差的最大贡献者（β= -0.35，p = 0.03）。性别是造成MT（beta = -0.44，p = 0.003）和TT（beta = -0.28，0.05）方差的最大因素。

CRF还显示出对TT方差的边际贡献（β= -0.25，p = 0.08）。年龄对sRT，MT或TT没有明显影响。

结论

与年龄相关的RT升高会危害道路安全。这项研究的结果表明，可改变的生活方式变量可能具有通过改善驾驶员RT的组成成分来降低道路风险的能力。