The relative contribution of environmental factors and human factors on driving cessation among older people in South Korea

Research Objectives: To assess the contribution of the associated factors on driving cessation among older people in South Korea

Design: Cross-sectional study

Setting: The general community

Participants: The 2020 National Survey of Elderly People was collected through random sampling based on the number of over 65 aged people included in the 2020 Census in Korea, and there were 10,097 participants. This study analyzed 3,679 older people, excluding those who had never driven before.

Interventions: Not applicable.

Main Outcome Measures: The main outcome of this study was the driving status. The driving status was classified into “Current driving” and “Have driven but not currently driving.”

Results: We selected associated factors of driving cessation, including general factors, human factors, and environmental factors. General factors were defined as age, marital status, work type, education level, and household income. Human factors were defined as variables such as muscle strength, cognition, visual acuity, and hearing. The factors of accessibility to a residence, medical institutions, public institutions, and supermarkets were considered as environmental factors. First of all, applying logistic regression, we built the predictive model of driving cessation using general factors, human factors, and environmental factors (Area under ROC curve=0.841). Second, we used dominance analysis(DA) to assess the contribution of the associated factors on driving cessation. As a result of DA, the factor that had the greatest influence on driving cessation was age (% R2=33.3%) among older people. Moreover, socioeconomic factors (work type, education level, household income) were a major factor affecting driving cessation (% R2=38%). Human factors (% R2=15%) and environmental factors (% R2=5%) contributed to driving cessation.

Conclusions: The predictive model developed in this study could contribute to the prevention of serious traffic accidents caused by elderly drivers and might help them drive safely.

Author(s) Disclosures: This study was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) Research Fund (NTRH RF-2023001) and the Korean National Police Agency (PR09-02-000-22).