The Effects of Cognitive and Visual Functions of Korean Elderly Taxi D

YeongAe Yang,^1,² HyeJin Lee^3,⁴

¹Department of Occupational Therapy, College of Biomedical Sciences and Engineering, Inje University, Gimhae, Republic of Korea; ²Institute of Aged Life Redesign, Inje University, Gimhae, Republic of Korea; ³Department of Occupational Therapy, Choonhae College of Health Sciences, Ulsan, Republic of Korea; ⁴Department of Rehabilitation Science, Graduate School of Inje University, Gimhae, Republic of Korea

Correspondence: HyeJin Lee
Department of Occupational Therapy, Choonhae College of Health Sciences, 9, Daehak-gil, Ungchon-myeon, Ulju-gun, Ulsan, 44965, Republic of Korea
Tel +82-10-8784-6389
Fax +82-52-270-0319
Email [email protected]

Purpose: In this study, we investigated the effect of visual and cognitive functions of elderly taxi drivers on safe driving behavior. We aimed to identify factors that interfere with safe driving in an aging Korean society in elderly taxi drivers.
Participants and Methods: A total of 203 elderly taxi drivers, aged > 65, working at 3 companies in a single city were assessed over 4 weeks from December 1 to December 30, 2017, using the Motor-Free Visual Perception Test, Korean Montreal Cognitive Assessment, and Korean Safe Driving Behavior Measure. To examine the effects of cognitive and visual functions on driving behavior, we performed a stepwise multiple linear regression analysis (p< 0.05).
Results: All 4 subdomains of safe driving behaviors were significantly correlated with the cognitive subdomains of attention and abstraction and the visual perception subdomains of visual closure 1 and figure-ground.
Conclusion: More systematic assessments of the relationship between driving behavior and cognitive and visual function in elderly individuals are needed.

Keywords: elderly, safe driving behavior measure, taxi driving, driving, cognitive function

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