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Research Article
A retrospective review of the potential relationship between the TMT B and on-road driving performance within a community rehabilitation setting
1 Rehab@Home, Queensland Health, Metro South Health, Logan Central Community Health Centre, 97-103 Wembley Road, Logan Central, QLD 4114, Australia
2 Queensland Cyber Infrastructure Foundation Ltd (QCIF), Level 5 Axon Building, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
Address correspondence to:
Andrea Hinckley
PO Box 3023, Hendra, QLD 4011,
Australia
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Article ID: 100057D05AH2024
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Hinckley A, Patterson S, Matigian N. A retrospective review of the potential relationship between the TMT B and on-road driving performance within a community rehabilitation setting. Edorium J Disabil Rehabil 2024;10(1):1–9.ABSTRACT
Aims: Occupational therapy (OT) driving assessments provide the gold standard approach to determine fitness to drive post-injury, medical event, and aging. However, these assessments are time intensive, costly and are associated with lengthy waitlists. As such, there is interest to investigate innovative approaches, including the use of the Trails Making Test B (TMT B), to assist clinicians with their decisions around returning to driving. The aim of this research was to explore potential correlations between TMT B scores and driving assessment outcomes.
Methods: Trails Making Test B data were collected between 2010 and 2019 within a publicly funded community-based driving service in Brisbane, which serviced a wide range of client diagnostic groups and age ranges (17–94 years). A retrospective analysis was completed to compare with the on-road OT driving assessment outcome.
Results: Results indicate a statistically significant relationship between TMT B score with on-road driving performance, with a higher confidence of predictability in the younger age groups (defined as 63 years or younger). Age is also related to on-road performance, with older clients more likely to fail. A 120 second time cut off may be a clinically relevant marker in predicting on-road performance, particularly for the younger clients.
Conclusion: The TMT B is useful tool to assist in the decision making around returning to driving to aid in the timing and need of on-road driving assessment and to potentially assist with decision making in situations where these assessments are not practically available. Clinicians can consider the risk versus the benefits of the test as a predictive tool given their specific contextual environment and access to on-road driving assessments.
Keywords: Driving, Fitness to drive, Occupational therapy, Trail Making Test B
SUPPORTING INFORMATION
Acknowledgments
The lead author would like to acknowledge Kerry Mallon for her ongoing support and mentoring within both the OT driving and research domains.
Author ContributionsAndrea Hinckley - Acquisition of data, Analysis of data, Interpretation of data, Drafting the article, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published
Sarah Patterson - Analysis of data, Interpretation of data, Drafting the article, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published
Nicolas Matigian - Substantial contributions to conception and design, Acquisition of data, Analysis of data, Interpretation of data, Drafting the article, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published
Guaranter of SubmissionThe corresponding author is the guarantor of submission.
Source of SupportNone
Consent StatementWritten informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this article.
Data AvailabilityAll relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.
Conflict of InterestAuthors declare no conflict of interest.
Copyright© 2024 Andrea Hinckley et al. This article is distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original author(s) and original publisher are properly credited. Please see the copyright policy on the journal website for more information.
