A Canadian research strategy for older drivers: The CanDRIVE program

Compared with other age groups, people over the age of 65 years have one of the highest rates of motor vehicle crashes per mile driven. This increased risk is not due to age in itself, but to the increasing prevalence of health-related conditions that can affect driving ability. A societal challenge is to balance this risk with the independent mobility and autonomy that driving provides. With increasing calls from governments, non-governmental agencies and the media for research related to the older driver, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Institute of Aging, approved funding in March 2002 for the formation of CanDRIVE. CanDRIVE is a national inter-disciplinary collaborative network of researchers dedicated to the identification and analysis of health-related issues pertaining to the safe operation of motor vehicles by older persons. This paper describes the. research framework guiding the activities of the CanDRIVE research program.