Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://ahro.austin.org.au/austinjspui/handle/1/18411
Title: Predictors of Driving Cessation in Dementia: Baseline Characteristics and Trajectories of Disease Progression
Austin Authors: Connors, Michael H;Ames, David;Woodward, Michael M ;Brodaty, Henry
Affiliation: Dementia Centre for Research Collaboration, UNSW Sydney
University of Melbourne Academic Unit for Psychiatry of Old Age
Austin Health, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia
National Ageing Research Institute, Melbourne
Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW
Issue Date: Jan-2018
Publication information: Alzheimer disease and associated disorders 2018; 32(1): 57-61
Abstract: A diagnosis of dementia implies the eventual need to relinquish driving. This is associated with significant morbidity and anticipating when it will need to occur can be important for planning. Patients, however, vary in the course of their disease. We sought to identify predictors of driving cessation in patients with dementia, including both baseline characteristics and changes in cognition and function over time as indicators of disease trajectory. A total of 779 patients with dementia were recruited from 9 memory clinics around Australia. Patients and their carers reported their driving status and completed measures of dementia severity, cognition, function, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and medication use at regular intervals over a 3-year period. Of the 247 patients still driving at baseline, 147 (59.5%) stopped driving during the study. Variables that predicted driving cessation included older age; female sex; greater dementia severity and cognitive and functional impairments at baseline; and greater increases in dementia severity and cognitive and functional impairments over 3 and 6 month periods. The findings confirm that easily assessable characteristics, including changes over time, predict future driving status. The findings underscore the value of regularly assessing patients with standardized measures to determine disease trajectory and likely prognosis.
URI: https://ahro.austin.org.au/austinjspui/handle/1/18411
DOI: 10.1097/WAD.0000000000000212
Journal: Alzheimer disease and associated disorders
PubMed URL: 28984640
Type: Journal Article
Appears in Collections:Journal articles

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