|
Abstract
|
Safe driving requires the ability to correctly recognize dangerous situations encountered while driving and to react appropriately to them. We conducted hazard prediction training in a group of individuals with brain injuries to determine whether this could be a method to assess and support safe driving ability in those suffering from brain injuries.
The subjects were 20 brain-injured patients （19 males and 1 female, mean age 49.7 ± 9.6 years） and 23 healthy individuals （13 males and 10 females, mean age 48.1 ± 16.6 years） admitted to or visiting our hospital between April 2017 and March 2018 or April 2019 and March 2020. Eight patients suffered from cerebral infarction, six from cerebral hemorrhage, two from subarachnoid hemorrhage, and four from head trauma. At the time of hazard prediction training, eight patients were within 60 days of their injury, ten were within 180 days, and two were more than 365 days from their injury. The intervention consisted of a 10-question excerpt of the Japan Automobile Federation （JAF） hazard prediction training, which was administered twice over a period of about 1 month. Answers to the 10 questions were scored by two or more occupational therapists holding a valid driver's license. Based on the sample answers provided by the JAF, correct answers received one point and incorrect answers received zero. Information on age, years of driving experience, driving frequency, and purpose of driving was also collected for both the brain-injured and healthy groups. The median score of the brain-injured group was 4 （3-5） at the first session and 7 （5.75-8.25） at the second session and those of the healthy group was 5 （2.5-6.5） and 9 （6-10）, respectively. Both brain-injured and healthy subjects had a significant increase in the median score on the second session. There were no significant differences in the scores of the first or second training sessions between the healthy group and brain-injured group.
The results of this study suggest that brain-injured persons may acquire the same ability to understand dangerous situations as healthy persons. JAFʼs hazard prediction training may be useful as a safe driving aid for brain-injured individuals undergoing rehabilitation to resume driving.
Language: ja |