Candrive Developing Medical Benchmarks To Help Doctors Assess Fitness Of Older Drivers

November 27, 2009 9:30 a.m. EST

Thunder Bay, Ontario (AHN) - The Canadian Driving Research Initiative for Vehicular Safety is developing medical benchmarks to assist Canadian doctors in determining the fitness of elderly drivers when they renew their driver's license.

The project covers a five-year period in which the motoring habits of drivers 70 and above are assessed and their physical health monitored.

Candrive sought 1,000 elderly volunteers from seven communities, namely: Victoria, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Hamilton, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. The national study is financed by the Canadian Institute for Research Health.

According to Dr. Michelle Porter, a professor at the University of Manitoba's Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management who is helping develop the standards, most Canadian provinces require doctors to report elderly drivers who are not medically fit to sit behind the wheels, but they are often hesitant because of lack of tools to reach a proper conclusion. Candrive seeks to address that problem.

When Candrive started to recruit volunteers in May this year, Canada Research Chair in Aging and Health Dr. Michel Bedard said in a statement, "If an older driver is in an accident, often there is a call for all older drivers to be removed or tested. This is ironic because literature supports that some of the safest drivers on the road are older drivers. We reject a call for any age-based restrictions on driving."