Awarded Research Grant to Prevent Unintentional Injuries

Description

Older driver safety is a complex phenomenon that extends beyond the person level to multiple systems (e.g., regulatory, policy-making, societal, and health care systems). Although many predictors for safe driving have been identified by researchers, these have not been integrated into a meaningful causative model. An integrated approach is needed, grounded in a public health model, to understand how behavioral, ecological, health educational, administrative, policy-based, and regulatory strategies can promote safe elderly driving. A failure to develop such strategies as the "graying of America" takes place could lead to a sharp increase in the number of older people killed, injured, or disabled in crashes. This project aims to develop a unifying public health model for safe elderly driving. The Precede-Proceed model of health promotion will provide the theoretical framework to (1) systematically review the current literature using the descriptive methodology used by the Cochrane Collaborative; (2) test the fit of existing population-based quantitative data, using epidemiological methods and structural equation modeling, (3) test the fit of qualitative data, using content analysis; and (4) refine the public health model to develop an intervention plan for safe elderly driving.