Abstract
Purpose :
Although visual acuity (VA) is used as a criterion for drivers licensing, the relationship between VA and driving safety is unclear, and there is a lack of evidence-based vision standards for licensure. This study evaluates the relationship among VA, motor vehicle collisions (MVCs), and moving violations (MV) in a sample of consecutive patients who underwent blepharoptosis surgery from 2013-2018 at the University of Wisconsin.
Methods :
IRB-approved retrospective cohort study. Inclusion criteria include current Wisconsin State drivers licensure during the study period. Health and demographic characteristics collected from the medical record included age, VA, ocular comorbidities (glaucoma, proliferative diabetic retinopathy, geographic atrophy, and age related macular degeneration) and medical comorbidities (dementia, heart disease, neurologic disease, history of stroke, arthritis, diabetes mellitus and depression). The number of MVCs and MVs were obtained from the Wisconsin Public Abstract Request System.
Results :
839 patients were included in the study. The median age was 69.3 (interquartile range (IQR) 62.7 – 75.2), better-eye VA was 20/20 (IQR 20/25 - 20/20), and 66.7% were female. 731 (87.13%) patients had VA OU better than 20/40 (minimum VA required for Wisconsin licensure). The mean rate of MVCs per year was 0.033 (standard deviation (SD) 0.16), and the mean rate of MV per year was 0.047 (SD 0.20). Univariable regression modeling revealed no significant relationship between better-eye VA and rate of MVC (β = - 0.006, 95% confidence interval [CI]= -0.047 to 0.060, p=0.81) or between better-eye VA and rate of MV (β = -0.002, 95% CI= -0.069 to 0.065, p=0.96). Multivariable models including age, gender, and presence of medical comorbidities also showed no association between better-eye VA and rate of MVC (β = 0.005, 95% CI= -0.050 to 0.060, p=0.87) or MV (β = -0.030, 95% CI= -0.099 to 0.038, p=0.39).
Conclusions :
In this cohort, there was no association between VA and driver safety, which supports other studies’ findings that VA may not be the best vision-based criteria for drivers’ licensure. Interestingly, 13% of our cohort of current drivers had a VA that would disqualify them from renewing their license.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.