Friday, May 27, 2011

Older drivers make mistakes, even when healthy

Older drivers make mistakes, even when healthy

Decline in brain functioning ability could affect driving skills for healthy, older population, study finds
By Amanda Chan

Aging is associated with an increase in crucial driving mistakes, even among healthy people with safe driving records, according to a new study.

The oldest people in the study, who were between ages 85 and 89, made four times as many critical errors in a driving test than the youngest people in the study, who were between ages 70 and 74, the study said.

Overall, 17 percent of the
elderly drivers in the study made mistakes such as veering or failing to use check blind spots that caused the professional driving instructor accompanying them to hit the emergency brake or grab onto the steering wheel.

Aging causes declines in brain functioning ability, which could affect driving skills and the ability to ignore distractions while on the road, said researchers from Australian National University.
The study was published online this week in the journal Neuropsychology.
Testing driving skills
Researchers had 266 volunteers between the ages of 70 and 88 take some tests measuring how well their brain functions. None of the volunteers had any signs of dementia, they all lived independently and they all drove at least once a week

Then, the volunteers were taken out for a 12-mile drive. A professional driving instructor rode in the car with them and had access to a brake on the passenger's side of the vehicle, while an occupational therapist rode in the backseat to note critical errors, including speeding, veering, tailgating, sudden braking without cause and failing to check blind spots.
Among those who made the driving mistakes, the adults ages 70 to 74 made, on average, less than one critical error. But adults ages 85 to 89 made, on average, nearly four critical errors, according to the study. And the volunteers who had had an accident in the last five years were also the most likely to make a critical driving error.
Men and women made the same number of mistakes in the study. The most common mistake was failing to check blind spots, followed by veering across lanes of traffic and failing to use turn signals, the study said.
The finding shows that older drivers may need extra training or screening tests to ensure they can be safe on the road, said study researcher Kaarin J. Anstey, a psychologist who directs the Aging Research Unit at Australian National University.
Tips for elderly drivers
Elderly drivers ages 75 and older made up 7.5 percent of fatal car crashes and 3.1 percent of all car accidents in the United States in 2008. There were 30 fatal accidents for every 100,000 licensed drivers for people ages 75 and older, while there were only 20 fatal accidents for every 100,000 licensed drivers for people between ages 65 and 74, and 19 fatal accidents for every 100,000 licensed drivers for people between 55 and 64, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
As the Baby Boom generation grows older, the more elderly drivers there will be on the roads. In 2009, there were 33 million people age 65 and older with a driver's license, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The CDC has some tips for older drivers to make sure everyone has a safe driving experience :
  • Review medications with your doctor or pharmacist to make sure there are no side effects that can impair your driving ability.
  • Get your eyes checked at least once a year, and always wear glasses or contact lenses while driving, if needed.
  • Plan your driving route before you start driving.
  • Don't tailgate; leave a large distance between you and the car in front of you.
  • Avoid distractions such as cellphones, loud radios and eating.
  • Consider public transportation if you don't feel safe driving.

Pass it on: Aging's effect on brain functioning could impact the ability of elderly people to drive.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43065601/ns/health-aging/

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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Mean old girls: Seniors who bully

Mean old girls: Seniors who bully

Bullying doesn't always end in high school — it also happens in retirement communities

By Diane Mapes
When Nancy Murphy moved into a retirement community near Portland, Ore., she didn't realize she'd actually traveled back in time.
"I came into breakfast one morning and this woman sitting at a nearby table sees me and says, 'Well, would you look at the new girl? She has WET HAIR!'" says Murphy, a 75-year-old retired schoolteacher. "She did this three mornings in a row. Then I found a flyer in my mailbox with a copy of the house dress rules. I know she tucked it in there."
Murphy, who's lived at the facility just under two months, says she ignores the woman's jabs — "I refer to her as Harriet High School" — but others at the nursing home have confided they're afraid of her.

"I had dinner with two gentlemen the other night and they said she terrifies them," she says. "That she's dictatorial, demanding, critical — classic bully behavior."
While much scrutiny and study has been devoted to bullying in grade school and high school these last few years, less attention has been paid to another category of bullies: those with gray hair, false teeth, hearing aids and canes. But according to experts, gray-haired bullies do exist and, as with their younger counterparts, their behavior can run the gamut from verbal intimidation to physical violence.
"It's kind of an institutional thing," says gerontology expert Robin Bonifas, an assistant professor at Arizona State University School of Social Work, who's currently researching senior-to-senior bullying. "It tends to take place in senior centers or nursing homes or assisted living facilities, places where they're spending a lot of time and need to share resources, whether it's chairs or tables or TV stations or staff attention."
Mary Noriega, a 64-year-old from Phoenix, says she has had run-ins with a group of "mean girls" at the senior complex where she and her husband moved a year and a half ago.
"I've endured a lot of bullying," she says. "There's a clique here of probably 20 women and they feel they control the property. I'm their kicking stone."
Story: Mickey Rooney gets order against bullying stepson
Noriega says the women in the group gossip about her ("One piece of gossip that went around was that we'd been evicted from our last apartment," she says); spread lies about her; discourage other residents from befriending her and give her dirty looks whenever she tries to use community facilities, like the rec room.
"No one should have to deal with the harassment I've endured," she says. "The first six months I lived here, I used to sit in my apartment and just cry. I've never dealt with anybody like this before."
These days, Noriega is gathering evidence ("I've got a briefcase crammed full of information about the harassment I've endured") and is turning to outside agencies like the local city council and ASU's School of Social Work in order to get help for her — and other residents — with the bullying problem.
Age-old problem
This kind of problem is nothing new to Gina Kaurich, an executive director at FirstLight HomeCare, who previously worked as a director of nursing at an assisted living facility outside of Dayton, Ohio, for several years.
"There is, in some regard, a caste system among residents," Kaurich says. "There would be an elitist type of table in the dining room where you had people who could eat and drink and carry on conversations very well together. And if an individual who had trouble eating tried to sit with them, they would ignore them or say, 'Why do you always seem to drop your fork?' They'd speak meanly to them. It was like high school."
Kaurich says even fun activities like singing weren't immune from bully behavior.
"In the recreation room, if somebody didn't participate the way somebody else thought they should, you'd see them get into that person's face," she says. "They'd be literally shaking their finger and saying, 'How dare you call out Bingo when you don't have a Bingo!' or 'How dare you sing that hymn that way!' Even if the person was in a wheelchair, they'd be looking down at them, shaking their finger in their face."
Story: Elderly drivers' brains may be distracted by irrelevant data
Doris Lor, a 76-year-old retired secretary, told the Arizona Republicthat when she moved to an age-restricted retirement community in Chandler, Ariz., her new neighbors yelled at her whenever she walked into the recreation center and refused to let her sit at the club's card tables or community pool.
The bullies were part of a "clique … that is meaner than mean," she says.
Estimated 10 to 20 percent of seniors bullied
There's little published research on elderly bullying, but Bonifas estimates about 10 to 20 percent of seniors have experienced some type of senior-to-senior aggression in an institutional setting, much of it verbal abuse.
Both men and women can bully, she says, but women tend towards passive-aggressive behavior like gossiping and whispering about people when they enter a room while men are more "in your face".
"With men, it's more negative comments directly to the person," she says "With women, it's more behind your back."
But it doesn't always stop at back-biting and bickering. Seniors have also been the victims of violence, she says, sometimes over something as trivial as a coveted spot at the dinner table.
"At one facility where I worked, there wasn't assigned seating so residents would tend to claim ownership at certain tables," she says. "And one time, a woman was sitting at a table having a cup of coffee and another resident came in and saw her seated at 'his' table and started yelling at her. She yelled back. And then he hit her — with his fist."
According to Bonifas, incidents like these are all part of a pattern of behavior.
Dementia and violence
"There's kind of a continuum to this aggressive behavior," she says. "Bullying would be on the lower end of the spectrum and at the higher end, you'll have actual incidents of violence between seniors. They could be hitting each other, kicking each other; there have actually been deaths."

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