Evaluation of driving performance in patients with juvenile macular dystrophies
J. P. Szlyk, G. A. Fishman, K. Severing, K. R. Alexander and M. Viana
Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Illinois, Chicago College of Medicine.
The driving performance of 20 subjects with central vision impairment due
to either Stargardt disease or cone-rod dystrophy (visual acuity, 20/40 to
20/70) was compared with that of 29 control subjects with normal vision who
had similar driving histories. Driving performance was defined by accident
involvement based on self-report and state records and by an evaluation of
performance on an interactive driving simulator. The proportion of
individuals involved in accidents in the central vision loss group was
comparable to that of the control group. For 13 of the 20 subjects with
central vision loss who did not restrict their driving to daylight hours,
there was a greater likelihood of involvement in nighttime accidents than
in the control group. Visual function measures and simulator indexes did
not predict accident involvement for the central visual loss group,
although these subjects showed longer braking response times and a greater
number of lane boundary crossings than the control group. These findings
are in contrast to our previously published report of subjects with
retinitis pigmentosa, who were more likely to have been involved in both
daytime and nighttime accidents than a control group and for whom visual
field extent was significantly related to accident involvement.
