AN EXAMINATION OF DRIVING RECORDS IN A DEMENTIA CLINIC

The driving records of 249 persons referred to an outpatient dementia clinic were examined retrospectively to assess the specificity of the association between diagnosed dementia and increased traffic accidents . The clinic patients were divided into two groups: those who met crit eria for dementia and those who did not. For each group, control subje cts matched on age, gender, and location of residence were randomly se lected from the records of all drivers in the province. The dementia s ample had approximately 2.5 times the traffic crash rate of their matc hed control sample. The not-demented sample had approximately 2.2 time s the traffic crash rate of their matched control sample. These indivi duals exhibited a variety of psychiatric, neurological, and medical co nditions which could have affected their driving, and multiple medical problems were often present. Further clarification of the characteris tics of ''high risk'' drivers is required if effective strategies for maximizing independence while minimizing the risk of traffic crashes a re to be realized.