Authors (including presenting author) :
CHOW HWJ(1), MA WLE(1), YANG LNM(1), CHIN MHA(1), CHU WHC(1), CHAN YCC(1), SO YNL(1)
Affiliation :
(1) Hospital Authority Community Rehabilitation Service Support Centre
Keyword 3: :
Patient assessment
Keyword 4: :
Fitness to drive
Keyword 5: :
Medical fitness
Keyword 6: :
Occupational therapy
Introduction :
Driving is an important human occupation. However, patients’ ability and health fitness-to-drive are commonly affected by their own medical conditions. Health related fitness-to-drive assessments are regularly provided in Hospital Authority, and specific recommendations on driving vehicles were given to patients.
Objectives :
To review HA CRSSC driver rehabilitation patients’ profile
To study fitness-to-drive assessment results in relation to diagnosis, clinical conditions, visual, cognitive functions and medical red flags.
To recommend possible directions and contents in future local driver assessment and rehabilitation program.
Methodology :
This review covered patients who have completed Hospital Authority Community Rehabilitation Service Support Centre (CRSSC) Driver Rehabilitation Service in the years 2022 to 2024. All patient's driver assessment records and results are documented in electronic database, that including driver's license type, assessment results and driving advice. If the patient is determined to be unfit to drive, the relevant medical reason(s) will also be recorded specifically for the patient's unfitness-to-drive.
Result & Outcome :
1747 discharge data records were reviewed. Commercial and non-commercial vehicle drivers:
Patients with both commercial and non-commercial driving licenses were the majority(58.2%). Drivers’ age:
The largest age groups were 50-59(32.4%) and 60-69(25.5%). The result also showed higher population of older patients required assessment for their commercial vehicle driving status. Drivers’ medical conditions
The most common disease conditions were neurological related (44.6%), orthopaedic related (36.9%) and cardiological (9.8%). And for single diagnosis, the cerebral vascular accident patients shared 30.7% of the total. Drivers assessed to be “unfit to drive”:
Fitness-to-drive assessment result showed that 77(4.4%) patients were ranked as not fit to drive any vehicles. They were suffered from either visual impairments(28.6%), physical disability(15.6%) and cognitive impairments(9.1%) , or having medical red flags for driving (e.g. seizure)(13%). There was a gradual growing service needs in driver assessment, especially for older patients and with occupational driving needs. Referring to the identified disease conditions and patterns, more attentions are recommended for neurological, orthopaedic and cardiac patients. Though the number of psychiatric patients were not high in this review, it was advised to note their high rate of unfit to drive (12.5% of assessed patients). The specific driver assessment conducted by trained Occupational therapist (OT) assessors can identify various medical and functional problems that may affect patients’ ability to drive. Further enhancement could be facilitated by making use of updated clinical reference and comprehensive assessment program.
