Not Driving Places Hardships on Seniors
Being stuck at home predicts a need for more care
 (HealthDay News) -- Older people who spend a lot of time at home -- whether or not they once drove -- appear more likely to end up in a nursing home.
Researchers found that people who had given up driving were five times more likely to need meal assistance or nursing home care. Those who had never driven and didn't have someone who drives living with them also were more likely to eventually need nursing home care.
"We expect older adults to make good decisions about when they should stop driving, but we fail to fully recognize the hardships that not being able to drive places on an older adult," the researchers wrote in the American Journal of Public Health .
Their study was based on a survey of nearly 1,600 adults between 65 and 84 years of age who lived in a small town.
People who had stopped driving were 4.85 times more likely to need long-term care in a nursing home, assisted-living facility or a retirement home that offered transportation and meal services than were seniors who were still driving, the study found.
Seniors who had never driven were about 3.53 times as likely to enter long-term care, and those who lived without a driver in the home were about 1.72 times more likely to be in long-term care.
The study's lead author, Ellen Freeman, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University , told HealthDay that the findings may not apply to people in every part of the country. The town where the study was conducted -- Salisbury , Md. -- has no public transportation, for instance, so seniors who don't drive are often stuck at home. But older people living in a large city would have access to public transportation and may not be as likely to need long-term care.
There are plausible reasons that homebound seniors might end up needing care, Yael Harris, a senior policy advisor with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told HealthDay .
"If you're not driving anywhere, you're less likely to leave the house, and the homebound are more likely to be depressed," she said. And, she added, "It's hard to get to a doctor."
Of course, that doesn't mean seniors should continue to drive to stay out of a nursing home. Older drivers have a higher risk of traffic fatalities for several reasons, according to the American Medical Association (AMA).
One is that their vision is not what it was when they were younger, and vision is the primary skill needed for driving. A need for increased time to adjust to lightness and darkness can also be a problem when driving, according to the AMA.
Seniors also may have difficulty driving because of problems with motor function, and driving a car takes muscle strength, endurance and flexibility, the medical group reports.
But, giving up driving doesn't mean older people have to sit at home. "Children can help their older parents figure out ways to stay mobile even after no longer driving," Freeman said. "Also, communities and governments can help to create alternatives to driving by organizing volunteer drivers and by funding public transportation targeted toward seniors."
On the Web
For more on knowing when it's time to hang up the car keys, visit the AARP online .
SOURCES: HealthDay News ; Ellen Freeman, Ph.D., researcher, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore; Yael Harris, Ph.D., senior policy adviser, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Baltimore; July 2006 American Journal of Public Health ; American Medical Association (www.ama-assn.org)
Author: Serena Gordon
Publication Date: June 30, 2007
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