Driving patterns in older adults with glaucoma

BMC Ophthalmology

Research Article

Pradeep Y Ramulu¹  Chad Hochberg¹  Suzanne W van Landingham¹  David S Friedman¹  Emilie Chan¹  Robert W Massof¹ 

[1] Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University, 600 N. Wolfe St., 21287, Baltimore, MD, USA;

关键词: Glaucoma;    Contrast Sensitivity;    Visual Field Loss;    Glaucoma Suspect;    Glaucoma Hemifield Test;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2415-13-4

 received in 2012-05-29, accepted in 2013-01-22,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe ability to drive is important for ensuring quality of life for many older adults. Glaucoma is prevalent in this age group and may affect driving. The purpose of this study is to determine if glaucoma and glaucomatous visual field (VF) loss are associated with driving cessation, limitations, and deference to another driver in older adults.MethodsCross-sectional study. Eighty-one glaucoma subjects and 58 glaucoma suspect controls between age 60 and 80 reported if they had ceased driving, limited their driving in various ways, or preferred another to drive.ResultsTwenty-three percent of glaucoma subjects and 6.9% of suspects had ceased driving (p = 0.01). Glaucoma subjects also had more driving limitations than suspects (2.0 vs. 1.1, p = 0.007). In multivariable models, driving cessation was more likely for glaucoma subjects as compared to suspects (OR = 4.0; 95% CI = 1.1-14.7; p = 0.03). The odds of driving cessation doubled with each 5 decibel (dB) decrement in the better-eye VF mean deviation (MD) (OR = 2.0; 95% CI = 1.4-2.9; p < 0.001). Glaucoma subjects were also more likely than suspects to report a greater number of driving limitations (OR = 4.7; 95% CI = 1.3-16.8; p = 0.02). The likelihood of reporting more limitations increased with the VF loss severity (OR = 1.6 per 5 dB decrement in the better-eye VF MD; 95% CI = 1.1-2.4; p = 0.02). Neither glaucoma nor VF MD was associated with other driver preference (p > 0.1 for both).ConclusionsGlaucoma and glaucomatous VF loss are associated with greater likelihood of driving cessation and greater limitation of driving in the elderly. Further prospective study is merited to assess when and why people with glaucoma change their driving habits, and to determine if their observed self-regulation of driving is adequate to ensure safety.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© van Landingham et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.