TY - JOUR
T1 - Reaction to a Pandemic
T2 - Social Distancing and Driving Among Older Adults During COVID-19
AU - Roe, Catherine M.
AU - Rosnick, Christopher B.
AU - Colletta, Angela
AU - Babulal, Ganesh M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.
PY - 2021/3
Y1 - 2021/3
N2 - Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has produced considerable morbidity and mortality worldwide, and older adults are at especially high risk for developing severe COVID-19. A cohort study of driving behavior from January 1, 2019, to April 25, 2019, and January 1, 2020, to April 25, 2020, was conducted. We hypothesized that older adults would reduce the number of days driving and number of trips/day they make after COVID-19 case acceleration. Data from 214 adults aged 66.5 to 92.8 years were used. Women comprised 47.6% of the sample and 15.4% were African American. Participants reduced the proportion of days driven during the pandemic (.673 vs.382 [p <.001]) compared with same period the year before (.695 vs.749). Trips/day showed a similar decline (p <.001). Participants also took shorter trips (p =.02), drove slower (p <.001), had fewer speeding incidents (p <.001), and had different trip destinations (p <.001). These results indicate that older adults reduce their driving behavior when faced with a pandemic.
AB - Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has produced considerable morbidity and mortality worldwide, and older adults are at especially high risk for developing severe COVID-19. A cohort study of driving behavior from January 1, 2019, to April 25, 2019, and January 1, 2020, to April 25, 2020, was conducted. We hypothesized that older adults would reduce the number of days driving and number of trips/day they make after COVID-19 case acceleration. Data from 214 adults aged 66.5 to 92.8 years were used. Women comprised 47.6% of the sample and 15.4% were African American. Participants reduced the proportion of days driven during the pandemic (.673 vs.382 [p <.001]) compared with same period the year before (.695 vs.749). Trips/day showed a similar decline (p <.001). Participants also took shorter trips (p =.02), drove slower (p <.001), had fewer speeding incidents (p <.001), and had different trip destinations (p <.001). These results indicate that older adults reduce their driving behavior when faced with a pandemic.
KW - COVID-19
KW - driving
KW - older adult
KW - pandemic
KW - social distancing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85092627763&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0733464820966516
DO - 10.1177/0733464820966516
M3 - Article
C2 - 33554720
AN - SCOPUS:85092627763
SN - 0733-4648
VL - 40
SP - 263
EP - 267
JO - Journal of Applied Gerontology
JF - Journal of Applied Gerontology
IS - 3
ER -