Attitudes: Mediators of the Relation between Health and Driving in Older Adults.

RESUME Nous avons examine les relations entre la sante percue (p. ex., l'etat de sante auto-evaluation) et des pratiques d'autoregulation de la conduite (p. ex., la frequence de la conduite, l'evitement des situations de conduite difficiles) comme mediee par les attitudes et les perceptions de conduite (a savoir, le confort de conduite, les attitudes positif et negatif envers la conduite) dans les donnees recueillies pour 928 conducteurs ages de 70 ans et plus inscrits a l'etude Candrive II. Nous avons observe que les attitudes specifiques a la conduite (p. ex., le confort de conduite, les attitudes negatives envers la conduite) assurent la mediation des relations entre les symptomes de sante et les comportements de conduite auto-reglementes au debut et au fil du temps. Seuls les attitudes negatives a l'egard de conduite ont medies entierement les relations entre les changements dans les symptomes percus de la sante et les changements dans le comportement de conduite. Les symptomes percus pour la sante influencent apparemment la probabilite d'eviter des situations difficiles de conduite par le biais de deux attitudes negatives initiales pour la conduite, ainsi que des changements dans les attitudes negatives au fil du temps. Comprendre les influences sur le comportement de conduite d'auto-reglementation seront benefiques lors de la conception des interventions visant a ameliorer la securite des conducteurs ages. ABSTRACT We examined the relations between perceived health (e.g., self-perceived health status) and driving self-regulatory practices (e.g., frequency of driving, avoiding challenging driving situations) as mediated by driving attitudes and perceptions (i.e., driving comfort, positive and negative attitudes towards driving) in data collected for 928 drivers aged 70 and older enrolled in the Candrive II study. We observed that specific attitudes towards driving (e.g., driving comfort, negative attitudes towards driving) mediate the relations between health symptoms and self-regulatory driving behaviours at baseline and over time. Only negative attitudes towards driving fully mediated the relationships between changes in perceived health symptoms and changes in driving behavior. Perceived health symptoms apparently influence the likelihood of avoiding challenging driving situations through both initial negative attitudes towards driving as well as changes in negative attitudes over time. Understanding influences on self-regulatory driving behaviours will be of benefit when designing interventions to enhance the safety of older drivers.