Affiliations: [a] Department of Legal Medicine, Shiga University of Medical Science, Shiga, Japan
| [b]
Tokyo Metropolitan Rehabilitation Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
| [c]
The Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
Correspondence:
[*]
Address for correspondence: Takuya Inoue, Department of Legal Medicine, Shiga University of Medical Science, Seta Tsukinowa-cho, Otsu, Shiga 520-2192, Japan. Tel./Fax: +81 77 548 2200; E-mail: ds131405@g.shiga-med.ac.jp.
Note: [1] The corresponding author presented this research at the 25th World International Traffic Medicine Association Congress in September 2016 (Beijing, China).
Abstract: BACKGROUND:Some stroke survivors hope to resume driving after hospital discharge. For those who had driven frequently before their stroke, a normal daily life depends on being able to drive. OBJECTIVE:Our objective was to determine whether Functional Independence Measure (FIM) scores predict patient driving ability, which would make them a suitable index for determining if a stroke patient can resume driving. METHODS:This was a retrospective study of 71 patients who suffered from stroke. We divided them into three groups based on their driving status after discharge: (1) resumed driving (Driver), (2) wish to resume driving (Wisher), and (3) no wish to resume driving (Non-wisher). We compared total FIM scores and subcategories of FIM scores across groups. RESULTS:Scores on the Motor-FIM and Cognitive-FIM were highest in the Driver group, followed by the Wisher and Non-wisher groups. Moreover, scores on the ‘problem solving’ and ‘memory’ subcategories of the Cognitive-FIM were significantly higher in the Driver group than in the Wisher group. CONCLUSIONS:The FIM could be a useful assessment tool for determining whether or not stroke patients can resume driving. Moreover, among the Cognitive-FIM sub-categories, problem solving and memory ability might be the scores most relevant for this decision.
Keywords: Vehicle driving, stroke, functional independence measure, cognitive function
