Effects of older adult driving resumption on all-cause mortality

Objectives: Driving cessation is associated with adverse social and health outcomes including increased mortality risk. Some former drivers resume driving. Do resumed drivers have a different mortality risk compared to former drivers or continued drivers? Method: We analyzed National Health and Aging Trends Study (2011-2015) data of community-dwelling self-responding ever drivers (n = 6,189) with weighted stratified life tables and discrete time logistic regression models to characterize mortality risk by driving status (continued, resumed, former), adjusting for relevant sociodemographic and health variables. Results: Overall, 14% (n = 844) of participants died and 52% (n = 3,209) completed Round 5. Former drivers had the highest mortality (25%), followed by resumed (9%) and continued (6%) drivers. Former drivers had 2.4 times the adjusted odds of mortality compared with resumed drivers (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 2.41; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.51, 3.83), with no difference between continued and resumed drivers (aOR = 1.22; 95% CI = 0.74, 1.99). Discussion: Those who resumed driving had better survival than those who did not. Practice implications include driver rehabilitation and retraining to safely promote and prolong driving.