Scanning Behavior and Daytime Driving Performance of Older Adults With Glaucoma

Purpose To assess the link between visual scanning behaviour and closed-road driving performance in older drivers with glaucomatous visual impairment. Methods Participants included 13 older drivers with glaucoma (mean age=72.0±6.7 years; average better-eye mean deviation [MD])= −2.9±2.1dB, average worse-eye MD=−12.5±7.1dB) and ten visually-normal controls (mean age=70.6±7.4 years). Visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, visual fields, useful field-of-view (UFoV), and motion sensitivity were assessed. Participants drove around a closed-road circuit while their eye movements were recorded with an ASL Mobile Eye-XG, and head movements recorded using the gyroscope sensors of a smart phone. Measures of driving performance included hazards hit, sign recognition, and lane-crossing time; an overall driving score was derived from these component measures. Results Participants with glaucoma had significantly poorer overall driving scores (p=0.026) and hit more hazards (p=0.043) than controls. The glaucoma group also exhibited larger saccades (p