COGNITIVE AND PHYSICAL FACTORS IN CHANGES TO THE AUTOMOBILE DRIVING ABILITY OF ELDERLY PEOPLE AND THEIR MOBILITY LIFE: Questionnaire Survey in Various Regions of Japan

We analyzed cognitive and physical changes in driving by aging drivers based on responses to a questionnaire delivered to elderly and non-elderly drivers in various regions of Japan. Factor analysis of the 27-item questionnaire indicated that four factors related to cognitive change while three factors related to driver physical change and task-oriented change. We adopted the situation awareness cognitive-behavioral model to examine relationships among derived factors. The four cognitive factors corresponded to the elements in the cognitive-behavioral process for automobile driving. The other three factors impact the cognitive-behavioral process. Investigation of the effects of demographic (age and area of residence) and automobile usage characteristics (driving frequency and annual mileage) on the factor scores revealed that cognitive and physical changes depended not only upon age but also on area of residence and automobile usage. From this results, daily driving experience was considered to influence cognitive and physical function. We analyzed the effect of cognitive and physical change on the level of satisfaction in using other modes of transportation from the perspective of elderly mobility. We found that drivers who scored higher for change in automobile driving skills remained satisfied with automobile use but not the use of public buses.