Abstract
Aging cause cognitive declines to a varying degree and may threaten driving safety. Dementia largely affects cognitive functions while pre-mild cognitive impairment (MCI) dose not so much. It makes both clinician and older person difficult to judge their driving fitness.
Driving is essential for independent social life in most parts except for some large cities. Driving could provide autonomy, mobility and other psychosocial benefits while driving cessation may induce depression and reduced social activity. Therefore, driving fitness should be judged by not age but individual functional ability.
Although early diagnosis of MCI is important for prognosis, there is little study about the effect of MCI on driving performance and also no consensus about test battery to discriminate driving ability. However, previous studies show that subtypes of MCI may differentially affect driving ability. Amnestic MCI may affect driving performance in a limited way unlike other MCI. Understanding of older person's cognitive and driving features may lead to maintain the mobility and improve quality of life. This presentation will show our past studies and future research direction.
