The health status of millions of people makes people more dangerous drivers

According to a new study, having depression can make you more of a burden on the road as you get older.

Researchers at Washington University studied nearly 400 people aged 65 and older for a year and found that people with major depressive disorder were riskier drivers than those without the condition.

The participants with depression were more likely than those without to drive erratically, brake abruptly and take turns too quickly, all of which increase the risk of car accidents.

About eight percent of American adults had a depressive disorder in 2021 – which amounts to about 21 million people.

It’s unclear how many of those are elderly, but the study authors wrote that late-onset depression in the elderly often goes undiagnosed, so it may be quite common in this age group.

Doctors have long known that older adults get into more car accidents than younger adults — and have suggested that medications, dementia or mood disorders like depression could be behind this trend.

Researchers say depression in the elderly makes them more likely to be reckless drivers due to the disorder’s effects on concentration and reflexes.

Here they suggest that depression could be a contributor, and say that early diagnosis of the condition in older people could make the road safer for everyone.

According to the study, approximately 42,514 Americans were killed in car accidents in 2022 Insurance Institute for Road Safety. Of those, approximately 5,626 people who passed were over 70 years old.

As the quality of life for older adults improves and the average lifespan continues to grow, the number of people over 65 in the US is expected to grow to 88 million by 2050.

This means that by that year about a quarter of all people on the road will be over 65 years old.

Even without depression, many older adults see their reflexes begin to decline and they begin to see cognitive changes that can make it more difficult to concentrate while driving.

But these symptoms can become more apparent with depression. With MDD, people’s symptoms can affect their ability to drive.

For example, according to Mayo Clinic, many people with MDD may have difficulty concentrating, which can make driving more difficult.

In other cases, people with the condition literally have slowed body movement and thinking, which can make it difficult to build the reflexes needed to respond to things along the way.

An older study conducted by this research group found that people over 65 with MDD were three times as likely to fail a driving test than people without the condition.

The research has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open.

Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine followed a sample of 395 participants around the age of 70 for one to two years.

Of these, 85 had been diagnosed with a depressive disorder, but were otherwise mentally healthy.

The researchers equipped each participant’s car with a special piece of hardware that monitored their driving behavior from the moment they turned the car on to the moment they turned it off.

It measures things like speed, but also journeys made at night, the hardness of braking and the speed at which people take turns driving. Combining all these factors, professionals may be able to assess a person’s driving skills long before he or she has an accident.

At the end of the study, researchers found that people with MDD were more likely to speed, corner faster, and brake harder than people without the condition.

They also found a number of factors that led them to conclude that people with the condition tended to drive more irregularly.

The researchers said: ‘Participants with MDD were associated with riskier driving behavior over time and compared to the control group.’

Driving at night, driving on unfamiliar roads and driving in bad weather can all increase the chance of an accident

These patterns remained significant even after the researchers controlled for other factors that could have influenced driving behavior, such as medication use.

There are no laws in the US that prohibit anyone from driving after a certain age. In some states, drivers over the age of 65 may need to renew their driver’s license more often than in others.

The researchers suggest that older people, especially those with MDD, could benefit from taking extra precautions while driving.

This includes avoiding driving at night or in bad weather, and making sure you take familiar routes to your destination.

In addition to general recommendations, the scientists recommended expanding better screening of older drivers so that they and their loved ones could be better aware of their risks.

They said: ‘Regular screening for depression and cognitive impairment in older drivers, coupled with fitness to drive assessment and tailored driving safety programs and support systems, can help improve road safety and maintain independence in older adults.’