No need to screen older drivers, says expert

An expert in geriatric medicine is arguing against the mass screening of older drivers.

Professor Desmond O’Neill of Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, points out in the British Medical Journal today (September 25) that older drivers have a relatively low car crash rate. He believes that mass age-related screening would be misguided and typifies a "worrying lack of due diligence" by the medical profession.

He has found evidence that older drivers actually raise traffic safety, for example, the risk of serious injury to children is halved if driven by grandparents rather than parents. "Yet the belief that older drivers pose a disproportionate risk to other road users refuses to die," he writes.

Instead, he suggests a focus on evidence-based innovations, such as restricted licensing and rehabilitation for people with age-related illness.

"This is the best approach to protect the safe mobility, and avoid further unhelpful stigmatisation, of a group whose ranks most of us will join in due course," he writes.

Calls for age-based screening are often based on misconceptions, he says, such as confusing the increased risk of death among older drivers due to fragility with crash risk, and a feeling that dementia risk might justify mass screening.

In summary, Professor O’Neill calls for "transportation that is flexible and responsive to the needs of older people" as well as car safety features "designed with the increased fragility of later life in mind."

Better guidelines for doctors could also play an important role in "directing our attention to the real health issues facing our older patients who drive", he adds.

O’Neill, D. Medical screening of older drivers is not evidence based. The British Medical Journal September 26 2012.