This paper is a literature review on assessment of
fitness to drive in older drivers with cognitive impairment.
Early studies on dementia and driving generally failed
to distinguish between safe and unsafe drivers on the basis
of cognitive test performance. Predictive studies demonstrated
that cognitively impaired persons as a group perform significantly
worse than controls on both neuropsychological and driving
measures. A high prevalence of cognitive impairment was
found in groups of older drivers involved in traffic accidents
and crashes. However, a large range in neuropsychological
test scores has been found. Low to moderate correlations
could be established between neuropsychological test results
and on-road driving performance, making it difficult to
discriminate between cognitively impaired subjects who
are fit or unfit to drive. The review concludes with a
discussion of methodological difficulties in the field
of dementia and driving, including participant selection,
the choice of neuropsychological tests, and the operationalization
of driving performance. (JINS, 2000, 6,
480–490.)