Screening Tests and Safety Interventions for Older Drivers Chris Hatherly Ageing Research Unit, Centre for Mental Health Research, ANU

Outline Older Drivers – Overview Screening Tests Test of Peripheral Seeing Predicting Hazard Detection Interventions Visual Perception Training

Why is this important? Population Ageing By 2050, 1 in 4 Australians will be over % of the population over 85 ‘Ageing in Place’ = independent mobility needs Older drivers: Have an increased risk of injury or death Are over-represented in multi-vehicle intersection accidents

Safety Priorities Screening Better Detection = Increased Road Safety Training Improve Safety and Maintain Mobility

Outline Older Drivers – Overview Screening Tests Test of Peripheral Seeing Predicting Hazard Detection Interventions Visual Perception Training

Screening Medical/Vision Screening SA – 70, 75, then annually ACT, WA – 75, then annually Qld – 75, then every 5 yrs Tas – 75, 77, 79, 80, then annually NSW – 80, then annually Victoria, NT – Nothing

Visual Screening 90% of driving information is visual However… Standard Visual tests have low, or no correlation with driving safety Tests of ‘Visual Perception’ show more promise for screening

Useful Field of View®

Study One Aims Expand on the Useful Field Of View concept to: Develop a validated screening measure for older drivers

TOPS – Spatial Score

TOPS – Temporal Score

Outline Older Drivers – Overview Screening Tests Test of Peripheral Seeing Predicting Hazard Detection Interventions Visual Perception Training

Outcome Measures Driving Hazard Perception Test (Horswill et al., 2008) Road Hazard Change Detection Test

Hazard Perception Test

Hypotheses 1.TOPS will predict detection times for peripheral hazards 2.Far peripheral prediction will be better for TOPS than UFOV

Method Multiple Regression, with Covariates Age, years education, MMSE, Choice RT Sample = 190 (average age = 75)

Results – Change Blindness Prediction of CBT Response Time (% unique variance explained) NearMidFar TOPS – Spatial 3.7%*2.2%2.4% TOPS - Temporal 20.2%*24.6%**24%** UFOV3.4%**1.7%1.8%* * p<0.5; ** p<0.01; ***p<0.001

Conclusions TOPS uniquely predicts detection of peripheral hazards. Validation with on-road sample – still to come

Outline Older Drivers – Overview Screening Tests Test of Peripheral Seeing Predicting Hazard Detection Interventions Visual Perception Training

TOPS - Training To improve range and efficiency of peripheral visual processing Cortical Plasticity – most improvement with varied tasks that are appropriately difficult

And again, at full speed!

TOPS – Training Task 3 x minute sessions 12 different tasks of increasing difficulty Program adjusts: Difficulty (speed, number of ‘distractors’) Target Placement (focus on areas of poor performance) Spread of targets into periphery

Training Study Design

Training Study - Results 21 Participants – each 9 sessions 3 Assessment, 3 health literacy, 3 vision training 824% Improvement on TOPS training task (range 356% - 1,481%) Anecdotal Improvement More efficient vision Greater awareness

Training Study - Results Preliminary Analyses Significant improvement on TOPS screening task following visual training (t(36) = 5.34, p<0.05)

Conclusions Adaptive visual training can improve speed and efficiency of peripheral vision. Does it translate to improved driving? Does the improvement last?

Acknowledgements NRMA – ACT Road Safety Trust Australian Research Council Supervisor – Professor Kaarin Anstey Project Chief Investigators: Joanne Wood, Mark Horswill, Nancy Pachana, Nick Barnes and project staff Study participants

Thank you!