Factors Affecting Self-Regulatory Driving Practices Among Older Adults

Abstract

Objective: The primary objective of this study was to better understand how self-regulatory driving practices at multiple levels of driver decision making are influenced by various factors. Specifically, the study investigated patterns of tactical and strategic self-regulation among a sample of 246 Australian older drivers. Of special interest was the relative influence of several variables on the adoption of self-regulation, including self-perceptions of health, functioning, and abilities for safe driving and driving confidence and comfort.

Methods: The research was carried out at the Monash University Accident Research Centre, as part of its Ozcandrive study, a partnership with the Canadian Driving Research Initiative for Vehicular Safety in the Elderly (Candrive), and in conjunction with the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI). Candrive/Ozcandrive represents the first study to follow a large group of older drivers over several years and collect comprehensive self-reported and objectively derived data on health, functioning, and driving. This study used a subset of data from the Candrive/Ozcandrive study. Upon enrolling in the study, participants underwent a comprehensive clinical assessment during which data on visual, cognitive, and psychomotor functioning were collected. Approximately 4 months after study enrollment, participants completed the Advanced Driving Decisions and Patterns of Travel (ADDAPT) questionnaire, a computer-based self-regulation instrument developed and pilot-tested at UMTRI.

Results: Self-regulation among older adults was found to be a multidimensional concept. Rates of self-regulation were tied closely to specific driving situations, as well as level of decision making. In addition, self-regulatory practices at the strategic and tactical levels of decision making were influenced by different sets of factors.

Conclusions: Continuing efforts to better understand the self-regulatory practices of older drivers at multiple levels of driver performance and decision making should provide important insights into how the transition from driving to nondriving can be better managed to balance the interdependent needs of public safety and personal mobility.

Keywords:

• self-regulatory practices
• mobility
• older drivers

Acknowledgments

This study was partially funded by a team grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) entitled “The CIHR Team in Driving in Older Persons (Candrive II) Research Program” in partnership with an Australian Research Council Linkage grant (Managing older driver safe mobility: An international collaboration). The Australian Research Council Linkage grant is also supported by VicRoads, the Victoria Police, the Transport Accident Commission (TAC, Victoria), Road Safety Trust New Zealand, and Eastern Health in Australia. Partial funding for this project also came from the Michigan Center for Advancing Safe Transportation throughout the Lifespan (M-CASTL).

 The authors acknowledge and thank the Candrive and Ozcandrive research teams and cohort study participants for their dedication. Without this support, this publication would not have been possible. The authors also thank several individuals who were instrumental to the completion of this project. Abigail Harding, Elizabeth Jacobs, Kate Mora, and Louise Beasley administered the questionnaires to Ozcandrive study participants. Renée St. Louis assisted in processing of the questionnaire data and setting up data files for analysis. Stuart Newstead from MUARC offered invaluable input on the statistical analyses. Judy Settles and Amanda Dallaire provided administrative support and Nicole Zanier provided editorial review and assistance.

 This work was completed in partial satisfaction of the requirements for a doctorate degree from Monash Injury Research Institute (MIRI), Monash University for the first author. As such, the first author thanks the Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) of MIRI with whom she has collaborated on this program of research, as well as the Candrive/Ozcandrive older driver research initiative (of which MUARC is a part), which has graciously shared data collection protocols and provided participants for later stages of her research on self-regulation of driving among older adults.

Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Traffic Injury Prevention to view the supplemental file.