• 한국노년학
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.1087-1099
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• 2012

The purpose of this paper is to examine how visuospatial ability affects the situation awareness for older drivers while driving. For this study, the Rey-Osterrith Complex Figure (ROCF) was used to measure the visuospatial ability of older drivers. The ROCF is used to measure visuospatial construct and memory abilities, and Real-Time Probes were used to measure the situation awareness with UC-win/Road simulation. Sixty drivers participated in this research (N = 30 older drivers, median = 70 years old and N = 30 younger drivers, median = 27 years old). Based on the results of this analysis, a repeated measure ANOVA was used to analyze the effect on each level of situation awareness related to visuospatial ability in driving. The results indicate that the visuospatial ability of older drivers serves as a crucial factor in determining the potential for older drivers to safely continue to drive. The results also imply the necessity of ROCF development to support and improve the visuospatial ability of older drivers.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.477-484
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• 2023

The number and age of elderly drivers are continuously increasing according to the extension of the human lifespan. Therefore, in transportation, efforts are being made to differentiate and manage elderly drivers by age group. This study aims to identify the factors affecting the crash severity of early and late elderly drivers, compared to middle-aged drivers, and to identify the characteristics between these groups. Crash data that occurred on nationwide roads for the past 5 years (2017-2021) was applied. Unlike previous studies, this study only targeted drivers in their 40s and older, when presbyopia begins: middle-aged driver (40-64), early elderly driver (65-74), and late elderly driver (75+). As a result of logistic regression analysis, a total of 18 variables were found to affect serious injuries including fatalities in early and late elderly drivers. Most of these variables appeared to lead to severity more sensitively in the late elderly group. The results of this study are expected to be useful as basic information for establishing traffic safety policies for elderly drivers in the future.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.55-79
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• 2006

This study is interested in aberrant driver behaviour. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of error and lapse on driving behaviour of elderly drivers. In order to estimate the errors and lapses, 'Driver Behaviour Questionnaire(DBQ) was used and tested with 883 drivers. Among them 175 of young drivers(younger than 25) and 150 of elderly drivers(older than 65) answered their driving patterns; driving history, annual mileage, the frequency of committing traffic violation, and experience of accident within 5 years. Elderly driver's data were collected by face to face interview. The factors of aberrant driver behaviour were analyzed and the DBQ score was compared by the age. The aberrant driver behaviour was consisted of 3 factors; violations, errors and lapses. Elderly driver's DBQ score was lower than young driver's. Elderly and young drivers showed longer driving history. were in low DBQ score group. Elderly drivers had high error score and young drivers had high violation score. Young driver's aberrant driving behaviour was associated with annual mileage, the frequency of committing traffic violation. Elderly driver's aberrant driving behaviour was associated with annual mileage, experience of accident. Specially elderly drivers, whose violation, error, lapse score was high answered more committing experience of accident within 5 years.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.355-365
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• 2019

Objectives: In rural areas of Korea, where public transportation infrastructure is lacking and alternative systems are poor, the elderly experience inconveniences in using healthcare, although their need is high. This study aimed to analyze the association between the convenience of transportation and unmet healthcare needs among the rural elderly. Methods: The data used were collected in the 2016 Community Health Survey among rural elderly individuals aged 65 or older. Dependent variable was the unmet healthcare needs, explanatory variable was the convenience of transportation. The elderly were divided into 3 groups: with no driver in the household, with a driver, and the elderly individual was the driver (the self-driving group). Covariates were classified into predisposing, enabling, and need factors. They included gender, age, education, income, economic activity, household type, motor ability, subjective health level, number of chronic diseases, anxiety/depression, and pain/discomfort. The data were analyzed using logistic regression and stratification. Results: A significant association was found between the convenience of transportation and unmet healthcare needs. When examined unadjusted odds ratio of the group with a driver in the household, using the group with no driver as a reference, was 0.61 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.54 to 0.68), while that of the self-driving group was 0.34 (95% CI, 0.30 to 0.38). The odds ratios adjusted for all factors were 0.69 (95% CI, 0.59 to 0.80) and 0.79 (95% CI, 0.67 to 0.91). Conclusions: We confirmed a significant association between inconvenient transportation and unmet healthcare needs among the rural elderly even after adjustment for existing known factors. This implies that policies aimed at improving healthcare accessibility must consider the means of transportation available.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.298-308
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• 2020

This study was designed to verify reliability and feasibility by analyzing elderly drivers' ability test tools for older drivers aged 65 or older, which were improved in 2018 and are currently being conducted by the Korea Highway Traffic Authority. Only those aged 65 or older who voluntarily applied to the elderly driving ability evaluation system implemented by the Seoul branch of the Korea Highway Traffic Authority. The research was conducted for about 50 days until Aug. 31, 2018, starting with the registration and inspection of the first study subjects. The analysis performed a correlation analysis with existing tools and cognitive testing tools (MMSE_K) to determine their feasibility and reliability as an improved tool in 2018. As a result, the first, the speed distance, time-space memory, and dispersionism of each sub-component of the old version showed statistically significant static correlation with the sub-factor of the current version. Persistence, on the other hand, was not statistically significant to the current version. The limitations of this study were as follows. Most of the people in the study were highly educated and residents in the metropolitan area. Therefore, it is likely that the results of MSE_K, which checks cognitive and judgment skills, have been upgraded. Also, cognitive tools that are measured by computers are likely to have real measurement errors for generations who are not familiar with computers. Therefore, it is expected that improvement and development of tools for improving the limit points at the site and assessing actual operation capability will be required.

• 한국노년학
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.225-241
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• 2018

Self-driving is meaningful activity for older persons because it enlarges the range of activity and provides opportunities for social participation. Driving is a complex activity that requires integration of physical, cognitive and sensory functions and is influenced by human and psychological factors. Age related functional deterioration affects the driving ability of older drivers. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the risk of accidents and driving cessation of elderly drivers through systematic literature review. MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, KoreaMed, Pubmed were used for searching articles published from 2007 to 2017. 'aged', 'aging', 'automobile driving', 'age factors' were used as search terms and 18 articles were finally selected for analysis among 1,458 articles. In result of the study, the most significant effect showed in the physical domain, the driving habit and the performance function. The most frequent used tools evaluated driving habit and the cognitive function. In demographic characteristics, there was a correlation with the driving discontinue according to sex and age. This study emphasizes the necessity of preparing measures for safety driving with elderly. In addition, it suggests the necessity of systematically services such as individual education programs based on various driving cessation related factors of the elderly.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.24-29
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• 2018

In this paper, we propose an efficient traffic light detection (TLD) method as an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) for elderly drivers. Since an increase in traffic accidents is associated with the aging population and an increase in elderly drivers causes a serious social problem, the provision of ADAS for older drivers via TLD is becoming a necessary(Ed: verify word choice: necessary?) public service. Therefore, we propose an economical TLD method that can be implemented with a simple black box (built in camera) and a smartphone in the near future. The system utilizes a color pre-processing method to differentiate between the stop and go signals. A mathematical morphology algorithm is used to further enhance the traffic light detection and a circular Hough transform is utilized to detect the traffic light correctly. From the simulation results of the computer vision and image processing based on a proposed algorithm on Matlab, we found that the proposed TLD method can detect the stop and go signals from the traffic lights not only in daytime, but also at night. In the future, it will be possible to reduce the traffic accident rate by recognizing the traffic signal and informing the elderly of how to drive by voice.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.1-7
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• 2009

Traffic accident by aging drivers is expected to be on the rise rapidly as the number of aging drivers is rising along with the aging trend being progressed. In this study, traffic accident features depending on the classification of aging population and non aging one was evaluated. As a result of this evaluation, effect factors influencing over the aging population was found to be expressed differently from that of the non aging one. Odds ratio between the aging population and non aging one was evaluated through logit model and a model with potential accident probability of the aged drivers was developed. Accident risk of the aged drivers under the condition of curved road, cutting section and moistured road was revealed to be higher than that of the non aging population.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.178-185
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• 2018

A self-report evaluation is used to prevent driving accidents by elderly drivers. The majority of normal older adults may have mild cognitive impairment with reduced cognitive function. These depressed cognitive functions may be variables that affect the performance of elderly drivers. This study confirmed the cognitive functions that affect the self-reported evaluation for elderly drivers with mild cognitive impairment. Based on the results of the Korean Version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, 103 elderly drivers were classified into mild cognitive impairment and normal groups of elderly drivers. The Korean-Drivers 65 plus scores used in the self-reported evaluation of the two groups were compared, and the cognitive functions affecting the evaluation were analyzed. Results found the mild cognitive impairment group showed a significantly lower evaluation performance compared to the normal group, and the self-reported evaluation results of the elderly driver with mild cognitive impairment showed a significant correlation between visuoconstructional skills and delayed recall. As a result of regression analysis, the visuoconstructional skill was identified as the cognitive function with the strongest influence on the self-reported evaluation performance. Delayed recall was also found to have a partial effect but not at the level of altering the self-reported evaluation results of the elderly driver with mild cognitive impairment.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.457-479
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• 2015

This study investigated the differential effects of subjective evaluation for attention and situation adaptability, and motivation on driving mobility as a function of driver's age. The results can be summarized as followings. First, subjective capability evaluation tended to decrease as the drivers' age increased, and lower evaluation for situation adaptability seemed to be recognized earlier than attentional ability in middle-aged drivers. Second, although subjective evaluation for attentional ability predicted positively driving mobility of all age groups, but only subjective evaluation for situation adaptability predicted positively driving mobility of older drivers. Third, among motivational elements, BAS predicted positively driving mobility of young and middle-aged driviers, whereas BIS predicted positively driving mobility of older drivers. Finally, middle-aged drivers tended show increased driving mobility when their attentional ability score and BAS were high, whereas older drivers showed lowest level of driving mobility when their situation adaptability score and BIS were low. These results suggest importance of integrated consideration for drivers' subjective evaluation for attention and situation adaptability, and motivation to understand characteristics of driving mobility in different age groups.