United States version of the Stroke Driver Screening Assessment: a pilot study.

BACKGROUND: Most stroke survivors who resume driving in the United States do so within the first year. More than 87% of these individuals resume driving without a formal evaluation of their fitness to drive because of the absence of standard practices and generally accepted and valid screening tools. The Stroke Driver Screening Assessment (SDSA) is an established battery for predicting stroke survivors' driving performance but is not currently used in the United States. This pilot study investigated the predictive ability of the US version of the battery in a US-based cohort of stroke survivors. METHOD: Fifteen first-ever stroke survivors (age, 52±12 years) and 16 healthy adults (age, 40±16 years) were administered the US version of the SDSA in a standardized format. Performance on the SDSA was compared with driving performance in a high-fidelity driving simulator. RESULTS: Stroke and healthy participants' driving performance was predicted with 87% and 88% accuracy, respectively. CONCLUSION: The US version of the SDSA battery has the potential to be a good predictor of driving performance of mildly impaired stroke survivors. Larger studies are needed to further establish its predictive accuracy.

Prediction of driving ability in people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis using the stroke driver screening assessment.

The ability to drive is often affected in individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) because of the motor, visual, or cognitive deficits commonly associated with the condition. In this study, we investigated the accuracy with which the Stroke Driver Screening Assessment (SDSA), an established battery for the prediction of driving performance of stroke survivors, would predict driving performance of individuals with MS. Driving performance of 44 individuals with relapsing-remitting MS (mean ± SD age, 46 ± 11 years; 37 females and 7 males) who were currently driving at least once a month was predicted using their performance on the SDSA. Outcomes of a road test and the Useful Field of View (UFOV) test were used as measures of driving ability. Participants' performance on both the road and UFOV tests was predicted with more than 80% accuracy. The SDSA was more accurate in predicting who would pass the two tests than who would fail the tests. The SDSA battery appears to be a good predictor of driving performance of individuals with relapsing-remitting MS, especially those who have sufficient cognitive skills to continue driving. Larger studies are needed to definitively establish its predictive accuracy and confirm the validity of the predictions.