Utilization of driving and other transportation rehabilitation in the National Health and Aging Trends Study.
Erin E Masterson, Briana L Moreland, David S Strogatz and 2 others
PMID 32111571WHAT IT FOUND
Among older adults who reported using rehabilitation in the past year, 128 of 1,335 reported using it to improve driving.
Those living alone, separated, divorced or never married were less likely to report driving rehabilitation than those married or living with a partner.
Key findings
01Out of the 1,335 older adults who reported receiving rehabilitation in the past year, 10% (N=128) reported receiving rehabilitation specifically to improve driving.
02Out of the 1,335 older adults who reported receiving rehabilitation in the past year, 2% (N=25) reported receiving rehabilitation to improve their use of other transportation.
03After adjusting for other variables, respondents living alone, separated, divorced or never married had lower odds of receiving rehabilitation to improve driving than respondents married or living with a partner (OR 0.29; 95% CI 0.11, 0.80).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot show whether marital status, depression, physical function or other characteristics caused older adults to seek driving rehabilitation. The driving-rehabilitation group was very small, so most comparisons between driving rehabilitation and other rehabilitation had little chance of showing differences. Rehabilitation use, the reason for rehabilitation, and many health characteristics were self-reported. The paper does not report how long rehabilitation lasted, what was done in it, or which profession delivered it. The analysis used only Round 5 of the NHATS cohort, so it captures one time point. Dementia/Alzheimer's and comorbidity count were removed from the final model because they did not contribute.
Declared interests
The supplied article text does not include a conflict-of-interest statement or funding declaration. The supplied publication types list research support from N.I.H., non-U.S. government, and U.S. government P.H.S.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that widowed older adults need driving rehabilitation or that driving rehabilitation works. The widowed association was not statistically significant, and the cross-sectional self-report study cannot show cause or effect.