Response to: Vision and drivers--a South Wales survey [Letter]

Wood, Nicola Ruth, Dinani, Naila and Robbe, Iain J 2008. Response to: Vision and drivers--a South Wales survey [Letter]. Journal of Public Health 30 (1) , p. 114. 10.1093/pubmed/fdm089

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

In an increasingly mobile and ageing population road safety considerations are vital to reduce deaths and injuries resulting from road traffic accidents. Anuradha et al.1 have recognized the potential benefits of measuring visual acuity at the roadside as a method of assessing true levels of impaired vision in motorcar users. We acknowledge the difficulties facing a small department when undertaking such a survey and the authors recognized many of the methodological limitations caused by the setting and a cross-sectional survey. However, the randomized recruitment of drivers could have been defined more clearly. For example, the investigators may have introduced selection biases by choice of vehicle type, colour and condition. The extrapolation figures should have been quoted more cautiously because the sample had 7.5% more people aged 60 or over and 12.6% fewer people aged less than 39 years than the general licence holder population in Wales. A larger study is required to address such issues as different times of day, months of the year and driving conditions. More fundamentally, we question whether the DVLA guidelines2 should be under reconsideration to include not only visual acuity but reaction times, ability to anticipate events and other factors related to experience.

Item Type:	Article
Status:	Published
Schools:	Medicine
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain Q Science > QP Physiology R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine R Medicine > RE Ophthalmology
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
ISSN:	1741-3842
Last Modified:	10 Oct 2017 14:16
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/28261

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item