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People with dementia may have a higher risk of driving accidents. These researchers studied the effect of states' physician-reporting laws and licensing requirements on the prevalence of dementia among crash-hospitalized drivers. Information on drivers hospitalized because of motor vehicle accidents was obtained from state inpatient databases and was divided into three age groups: 60–69, 70–79, and 80+. Among nearly 137,000 hospitalized drivers, 4% had a diagnosis of dementia at the time of hospitalization, with the 80+ age group having the highest prevalence.
Physician-reporting laws were not associated with a lower prevalence of dementia in hospitalized drivers. In the 60–69 age group, hospitalized drivers were 37%–38% less likely to have …