Grant: Planning Grants

Candrive is a CIHR-funded national inter-disciplinary research team dedicated to addressing health-related issues pertaining to the safety and quality-of-life of older drivers. Part of its agenda is the conduct of a 5-year prospective cohort study of 1000 older drivers from 7 Canadian centres. Participants undergo an annual assessment of their functional, medical, attitudinal, behavioral and cognitive status. Their driving patterns are recorded with in-car data logging devices. They will be followed to the outcome of crash as determined by provincial databases. Key goals of this study include determination of the natural history of driving in older persons and the development of a clinical decision rule that will help determine the safety of older drivers. Half of the required participants have been recruited. The Candrive investigators have established collaborative links with international researchers. Jude Charlton, Monash U. Australia, has recently obtained a peer-reviewed research grant to establish a research cohort of older drivers in Australia. Lisa Molnar from the U. of Michigan has applied to establish an American-based cohort of older drivers. In order to be able to amalgamate the data from their studies and the Candrive study, these researchers will follow the Candrive cohort study protocol. A face-to-face planning meeting involving Candrive researchers and its international colleagues would be beneficial to ensure the success of this collaboration. In particular, this meeting will facilitate the further development of a methodologically sound protocol that will answer the key research questions. Also, many logistical issues need to be addressed. For example, the international investigators must be well versed in all particulars pertaining to the study protocol including assessment procedures and the in-car data logging devices. Also, common procedures such as formatting and storage of study research data need to be agreed upon.