The Nordic stroke driver screening assessment as predictor for the outcome of an on-road test

Abstract

The use of the cognitive test battery Nordic Stroke Driver Screening Assessment (NorSDSA) has increased, sometimes as a stand-alone test to evaluate fitness to drive, also for non-stroke patients such as patients suffering from cognitive deficits/dementia, approaches that may be questioned. The objective of the study was to determine whether the NorSDSA could predict an on-road test result, for large sets of stroke (n=74) and cognitive deficits/dementia participants (n=116), respectively. The percentage of correctly classified was 62% for the stroke group and 50% for the cognitive deficits/dementia group. A discriminant analysis with pass/fail on the on-road test as grouping variable could classify 62% of the stroke participants and the cognitive deficit/dementia participants. Hence, the NorSDSA could not predict the outcome of the on-road test. Therefore, NorSDSA should not be used as a stand-alone test to determine the fitness to drive of individual participants. Also, its use with participants suffering from cognitive deficits/dementia appears to be less successful than for clients with stroke.