In a study on the prevalence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and its association with crash risk among older adult drivers, researchers found that older adult drivers with ADHD are at a significantly elevated crash risk compared with their counterparts without ADHD. Outcomes included hard- braking events, and self-reported traffic ticket events, and vehicular crashes. Until now research on ADHD and driving safety was largely limited to children and young adults, and few studies assessed the association of ADHD with crash risk among older adults.
Older adult drivers were more than twice as likely as their counterparts without ADHD to report being involved in traffic ticket events (22 versus 10 per million miles driven), and vehicular crashes (27 versus 13.5 per million miles driven).
Yuxin Liu, Stanford Chihuri, Thelma J. Mielenz, Howard F. Andrews, Marian E. Betz, Carolyn DiGuiseppi, David W. Eby, Linda L. Hill, Vanya Jones, Lisa J. Molnar, David Strogatz, Guohua Li. Motor Vehicle Crash Risk in Older Adult Drivers With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. JAMA Network Open, 2023; 6 (10): e2336960 DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.36960