Older adults who have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have a 74% higher risk of car crashes compared to their peers who don’t have the disorder. They also have a higher risk for hard-braking events and getting traffic tickets.
The factors that put them at risk include inattention and impulsivity, which can occur with ADHD, according to the study published Wednesday in JAMA Network Open.
Scientists looked at data on 2,832 adults between the ages of 65 to 79. Of them, 1,179 were 65 to 69, 984 were 70 to 74, and 669 were 75 to 79 years old. The people came from Maryland, California, Michigan, Colorado and New York. More than half were women, and 85.7% were non-Hispanic white people. In-vehicle data recording devices and yearly assessments were conducted from July 6, 2015, to March 31, 2019.
Of the people studied, 2.6% had ADHD and about 7% with anxiety or depression also had ADHD. The prevalence of ADHD was 4.8% in those taking 10 or more medications, and 1.5% in that same group who did not have ADHD.
Having ADHD was associated with a 7% increased risk of hard-braking events, a 102% increased risk of self-reported traffic ticket events and a 74% increased risk of self-reported vehicular crashes.
“As aging of the driver population continues, effective interventions to improve the diagnosis and clinical management of ADHD among older adults are warranted to promote safe mobility and healthy aging,” the authors wrote.
Eugene Arnold, MD, a professor emeritus of psychiatry and behavioral health at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, reviewed the study and commented to UPI on the findings.
“Developmentally, the hyperactive impulsive symptoms tend to get better with age, at least up to a point, up to young adulthood,” he said. “And the inattentive symptoms tend to persist but do just gradually get a little better into probably mid-adulthood. But no, I don’t think anybody’s actually tracked what happens … It’s a lifelong project to track a sample from childhood to senescence.”
