New poject identifies motorists with dementia who are unfit to drive

11 October 2023

A new project, funded by The Road Safety Trust will set out to develop an effective screening test to identify individuals in the early stages of dementia who are unfit to drive.

Driving is a complex activity requiring a multitude of cognitive skills and abilities. For persons with dementia, driving inevitably becomes more difficult and they may become unsafe on roads. 

Defective eye scanning (inadequate scanning, loss of central field advantage affecting response times etc) has been shown to be a feature in the early phases of dementia called mild cognitive impairment.

A decline in visual scanning skills, which help drivers judge risk and predict upcoming traffic problems, could play a large role in making people with early dementia unsafe drivers. For example, small changes in visual scanning may reduce reaction times and/or result in failure to notice important cues. 

The project aims to investigate the accuracy of a non-invasive eye scanning technique to detect how and when changes in visual scanning skills are related to driving ability in older people with and without early dementia/MCI.

The results will be compared to the usual dementia screening tests used currently to determine fitness to drive.

Delivering the results of a fitness to drive test to the patient with dementia and their loved ones can be a difficult task for clinicians, therefore the project will also explore the needs and preferences of this feedback amongst people with cognitive impairment who are no longer able to drive safely.