Driving Competence in Mild Dementia with Lewy Bodies: In Search of Cognitive Predictors Using Driving Simulation

Stephanie Yamin; Arne Stinchcombe; Sylvain Gagnon

doi:10.1155/2015/806024

Driving Competence in Mild Dementia with Lewy Bodies: In Search of Cognitive Predictors Using Driving Simulation

Int J Alzheimers Dis. 2015:2015:806024. doi: 10.1155/2015/806024. Epub 2015 Dec 2.

Authors

Stephanie Yamin¹, Arne Stinchcombe², Sylvain Gagnon³

Affiliations

¹ School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Canada ; Faculty of Human Sciences, Saint Paul University, Room G-321, 223 Main Street, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1S 1C4.
² School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Canada ; Centre for Research on Safe Driving, Lakehead University, Canada.
³ School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Canada.

Abstract

Driving is a multifactorial behaviour drawing on multiple cognitive, sensory, and physical systems. Dementia is a progressive and degenerative neurological condition that impacts the cognitive processes necessary for safe driving. While a number of studies have examined driving among individuals with Alzheimer's disease, less is known about the impact of Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) on driving safety. The present study compared simulated driving performance of 15 older drivers with mild DLB with that of 21 neurologically healthy control drivers. DLB drivers showed poorer performance on all indicators of simulated driving including an increased number of collisions in the simulator and poorer composite indicators of overall driving performance. A measure of global cognitive function (i.e., the Mini Mental State Exam) was found to be related to the overall driving performance. In addition, measures of attention (i.e., Useful Field of View, UFOV) and space processing (Visual Object and Space Perception, VOSP, Test) correlated significantly with a rater's assessment of driving performance.