Perception of the impact of certain health conditions on driving performance

Driving task requires the joint performance of many abilities which can be altered by several psychophysical conditions. Furthermore, a large number of recent studies on driving has found that there are several conditions that may affect the ability to operate safely motor vehicles and to prevent road crashes. The objective of this study was to describe the perception of drivers about the effect of certain health conditions on driving performance. This cross-sectional study used a total sample of n=1200 (666 [56%] men and 534 [44%] women) Spanish drivers, who answered a questionnaire designed to collect data about their psychosocial characteristics, driving habits and perceptions about the driving task. One-way ANOVA and Bonferroni's Post-hoc tests were performed to compare data among groups of drivers. Results showed that that drivers consider that the influence of alcohol, drugs, drowsiness and medicine consumption may impair their driving, but do not take into account certain health conditions that may be common among the population of drivers, such as diabetes, allergies, joint pains, myopia, heart or post-heart-attack problems, as well as headaches and migraines, as risk-related, regarding its potential negative impact on driving performance. In short, there is a substantial lack of correspondence between driver's perceptions and behaviors with respect to the impact of health conditions on crash risk, and a growing need to raise people's awareness regarding certain health conditions that may impair driving through road safety formation and media campaigns. Furthermore, taking into account the frequency of the health conditions analyzed and their high impact on driving, this research suggests implementing systems that fulfill two basic requirements: to improve the flow of preventive information for drivers, and strengthen the control and monitoring of their health through a joint action of the health care system and the traffic system