Driving and health: the difficult balance between fitness assesment, risk prevention and quality of life. A compromise for driver medical assessment centers

e202305042

Authors

  • Enrique Mirabet Lis Sociedad Española de Medicina de Tráfico (SEMT). Madrid. España.
  • Elena Valdés Rodríguez Unidad de Programas de Aptitudes Psicofísicas, Subdirección General de Formación y Educación Vial, Dirección General de Tráfico. Madrid. España.
  • Patricia Pérez Fernández Observatorio Nacional de Seguridad Vial, Dirección General de Tráfico. Madrid. España.
  • Rosario Sanz Bara Área de Psicología, Centro de Reconocimiento de Conductores H-0001. Huesca. España.
  • Marta Ozcoidi Val Sociedad Española de Medicina de Tráfico (SEMT). Madrid. España.
  • Sara Gil Tarragato Área de Prevención, Subdirección de Promoción de la Salud y Prevención, Dirección General de Salud Pública, Ministerio de Sanidad. Madrid. España.
  • Soledad Justo Gil Área de Prevención, Subdirección de Promoción de la Salud y Prevención, Dirección General de Salud Pública, Ministerio de Sanidad. Madrid. España.

Keywords:

Road safety, Prevention, Health advice

Abstract

Injuries associated with road crashes are one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality in our country. The causes are varied and involve the person driving, the vehicle and other external factors such as public roads and legislation.

However most important injuries can be prevented. A useful tool for this purpose is the Psychological Medical Examination Protocol for Drivers’ Health Assessment Centers, which has been updated by a working group coordinated by the General Directorate of Traffic and the General Directorate of Public Health with the participation of experts from the Spanish Society of Traffic Medicine and the collaboration of institutions related to road risk assessment. The new version of the protocol highlights both the assessment of road risk associated with health conditions, and as a novelty, the importance of road safety professional’s advice to inform and train citizens on how to prevent risks based on their health situation or health condition.

It highlights the need for the Drivers’ Health Assessment Centers intervention to focus on prevention, being necessary to accompany psychophysical assessment with road safety advice that allows the driver to be aware of the road safety benefits of the prescribed measures. The objective of this article was to make known not only the psychological medical examination protocol, but also the approach that is given to the preventive intervention of road accidents from the health field.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Traumatismos causados por el tránsito. OMS, 2022. https://www.who.int/es/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/road-traffic-injuries

Avance de las principales cifras de la Siniestralidad Vial España 2020. DGT, 2020. https://www.dgt.es/export/sites/web-DGT/.galleries/downloads/dgt-en-cifras/24h/Las-principales-cifras-2020_v6.pdf

Violence and injuries in Europe: burden, prevention and priorities for action. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe; 2020. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/332919/9789289055109-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Informe del Grupo de Expertos sobre conducción de vehículos y enfermedades cardiovasculares. La conducción de vehículos y las enfermedades cardiovasculares en Europa: Una mirada profesional y sus recomendaciones para la actualización de la Directiva 2006/126/CE Anexo III. Ed. Vijgen J. Bruselas, 2013.

Langford IH, Marris C, O’Riordan T. (1999). Public reactions to risk: Social structures, images of science, and the role of trust. En Bennett P, Calman K (Eds.). Risk communication and public health (pp. 33-50). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Charlton J, Koppel S, Odell M, Devlin A, Langford J, O’Hare M, Kopinathan C, Andrea D, Smith G, Khodr B, Edquist J, Muir C and Scully M. Influence of Chronic Illness on Crash Involvement of Motor Vehicle Drivers: 2nd Edition. Report No. 300. 2010,Monash University Accident Research Centre.

Hanna R. The contribution of medical conditions to passanger vehicle crashes. Report n. DOT HS 811 219. NHTSA 2009. http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811219.pdf

Haddon W. The changing approach to the epidemiology, prevention, and amelioration of trauma: the transition to approaches etiologically rather than descriptively based. Am J Public Health Nations Health. 1968; 58:1431-1438.

Protocolo de exploración médico-psicológica para centros de reconocimiento de conductores. Ministerio de Sanidad/DGT Ed, 2022.

Informe del Grupo de Expertos sobre conducción de vehículos y enfermedades cardiovasculares. La conducción de vehículos y las enfermedades cardiovasculares en Europa: Una mirada profesional y sus recomendaciones para la actualización de la Directiva 2006/126/CE Anexo III. Ed. Vijgen J. Bruselas, 2013.

Published

2023-05-30

How to Cite

1.
Mirabet Lis E, Valdés Rodríguez E, Pérez Fernández P, Sanz Bara R, Ozcoidi Val M, Gil Tarragato S, et al. Driving and health: the difficult balance between fitness assesment, risk prevention and quality of life. A compromise for driver medical assessment centers: e202305042. Rev Esp Salud Pública [Internet]. 2023 May 30 [cited 2024 Dec. 4];97:8 páginas. Available from: https://ojs.sanidad.gob.es/index.php/resp/article/view/121

Issue

Section

Colaboraciones especiales

Categories

Most read articles by the same author(s)