According to a new study from the University of Iowa, poor driving skills may be considered one of the early signs of Alzheimer’s disease.

“Our research indicates that even among people who have early, mild cases of cognitive decline, there is an immediate drop-off in driving skills,” study author Jeffrey Dawson, an associate professor of biostatistics at the University of Iowa, in Iowa City, was quoted as saying.

 

For the study, Dawson and other colleagues from the University of Iowa compared the driving abilities of 40 elderly people with Alzheimer’s disease and 115 old people without the condition. The participants were the subject of a series of off-road tests to evaluate their abilities behind the wheel. These tests were used to measure thinking, movement and visual skills. In addition, they underwent a road test in a Ford Taurus, over a 35-mile route of city and non-city roads.

 

The results showed 76 driving errors in total, including incorrect stops and being in the wrong lane.

According to the study, published in this months’ issue of Neurology, drivers diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease made an average of 42 safety mistakes, compared to non-Alzheimer’s drivers, who made only 33 road mistakes. Overall, those with Alzheimer’s disease made 27 percent more safety mistakes than those without the disease.

Alzheimer’s sufferers who had low scores at the off-road tests were responsible for more on-road safety errors than their counterparts.

According to the estimates of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, there are currently about 4.5 million Americans with Alzheimer's disease. One in 20 people with ages ranging from 65 to 74 and almost half of those with ages over 85 are affected by the terrible condition.