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Toward Safe and Confident Silver Drivers: Investigating Older Adults' Driving Practices
ABSTRACT
As the aging population in the United States continues to increase rapidly, preserving the mobility and independence of older adults becomes increasingly critical for enabling aging in place successfully. While personal vehicular transport remains a popular choice among this demographic due to its provision of independence and control over their lives, age-related changes may heighten the risk of common driving errors and diminish driving abilities. This study seeks to explore methods to assist older adults in maintaining safe and confident driving practices. Through semi-structured interviews conducted with 20 seniors aged 65 and older who remain active drivers, we examined their perceptions, needs, and challenges regarding safe and confident driving. Our findings uncovered a notable disparity between older adults' self-perceived driving skills and the challenges they face, particularly concerning age-related limitations and health conditions. Based on these insights, we propose strategies to bridge this gap and empower seniors to drive safely and confidently.
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.