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Predictors of driving cessation among older drivers in Taiwan

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Highlights

λ Information on driving cessation has rarely been reported for Taiwan.

λ Stride length and conceptualization are identified as predictors of driving cessation for the first time.

λ Marital status, body mass index, heart disease, and regular exercise are also associated with driving cessation.

Abstract

This 4-year prospective cohort study was conducted to identify predictors of driving cessation among older people in Taiwan. Individuals who had visited the outpatient clinics of a general hospital in Taipei City, were aged ≥ 65 years, and drove a car at least once a week were recruited for this study. Baseline data on sociodemographics, lifestyle behaviors, health conditions, driving characteristics, and functional measures were collected. The driving status of participants was followed up through telephonic interviews at 2-month intervals. Driving cessation was defined as not having driven a car in the previous 6 months. Of the 245 drivers in the study, 86 (35.1%) had ceased driving. A proportional hazard model revealed that after adjustment for age, sex, height, and other variables, older drivers who were widowed, were single or divorced (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.90; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.58–5.31), had coronary artery disease (HR = 3.48; 95% CI, 1.90–6.40), and had a short stride length (HR = 0.97; 95% CI, 0.96–0.98) were significantly more likely than their counterparts to cease driving. By contrast, older drivers who were overweight or obese (HR = 0.51; 95% CI, 0.31–0.83), exercised at least 3 times a week (HR = 0.54; 95% CI, 0.33–0.88), and had high scores on cognitive conceptualization (HR = 0.89; 95% CI, 0.82–0.97) were significantly less likely to cease driving. Numerous factors, including marital status, body mass index, coronary artery disease, stride length, cognitive conceptualization, and regular exercise, were identified as predictors among older Taiwanese drivers. Gait characteristics were identified as a predictor of driving cessation for the first time, but the underlying mechanism requires further investigation.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Taipei Medical University and Taipei Medical University Hospital (110TMU-TMUH-18), the National Health Research Institutes (NHRI-EX111-10804PI), and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST109-2314-B-038-065-MY3), Taiwan, R.O.C.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Emergency Medicine, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C.

    Wen-Yu Yu

  2. Institute of Injury Prevention and Control, College of Public Health, Taipei Medical University, 250 Wu-Hsing Street, 11031, Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C.

    Wen-Yu Yu, Sy-Jou Chen, Chih-Yi Chen & Mau-Roung Lin

  3. Department of Emergency Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C.

    Sy-Jou Chen

  4. Department of Nursing, National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences, Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C.

    Hei-Fen Hwang

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WYY and MRL designed the study. SJC, HFH, and CYC performed the literature search and collected and analyzed the data. WYY drafted the manuscript. SJC, HFH, CYC, and MRL revised the manuscript.

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Yu, WY., Chen, SJ., Hwang, HF. et al. Predictors of driving cessation among older drivers in Taiwan. Transportation 50, 2423–2439 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-022-10315-7

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