In a study on the prevalence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and its association with crash risk among older adult drivers, researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health found that older adult drivers with ADHD are at a significantly elevated crash risk compared with their counterparts without ADHD. Outcomes included hard- braking events, and self-reported traffic ticket events, and vehicular crashes.

Until now research on ADHD and driving safety was largely limited to children and young adults, and few studies assessed the association of ADHD with crash risk among older adults. The results are published online in JAMA Network Open.

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[–] 36 points 3 years ago (3 children)

Oh great, is car insurance gonna start raising premiums for people with ADHD now too?

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  • [–] 14 points 3 years ago

    And due to the expectation that it's hereditary: sorry your daddy gave his medical information in the previous century so you can't be insured by our company unless your willing to tripple the rates because you could be aswell.

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  • [–] 18 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    I think I tend to hyperfocus while driving so I have that thing going for me which is nice.

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  • [–] 17 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    i have adhd and i hate driving. i wouldve stopped ages ago if i had a choice in the usa.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 years ago*

    My partner has ADHD and it feels like my life is on the line every time I let him drive. He waits too long to stop, hard-braking frequently. He continues accelerating when the car in front of us is braking. Etc. It's terrifying.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago (5 children)

    Probably distracted driving.

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  • [–] 26 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (4 children)

    Yes perhaps some sort of disordered hyper activity in their brain causing a kind of distracted state or “deficit” if you will, in their attention

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  • [–] -2 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    More about impulse control I think. Making the right decisions while driving, not getting overwhelmed.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago

    The number of drivers who don’t seem to realize they’re driving is too damn high. I can think of at least five examples of this I saw just this morning.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    This has been known for decades. Not sure what's new about this study.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago (2 children)
  • [–] -4 points 3 years ago*

    An attention-deficit makes you perform worse at a task that requires attention?

    These scientists must have some great out of the box thinking to have pieced together this one.

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  • [–] -4 points 3 years ago