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A Pilot Study

Hon K. Yuen, PhD, OTR/L; M. Boyd Gillespie, MD; Russell A. Barkley, PhD; Terry A. Day, MD; Dipankar Bandyopadhyay, PhD; Anand K. Sharma, MD

Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2007;133(9):904-909.

Objective  To investigate actual driving performance in a group of patients with cancer in the head and neck region.

Design  A nonrandomized controlled trial.

Participants  Ten patients with cancer in the head and neck region participated in a driving evaluation using a virtual reality driving simulator. Driving performance from the simulator and observer ratings on participants' driving behaviors were compared between a group of patients with cancer in the head and neck region and a group of 50 community control subjects.

Main Outcome Measures  Average speed, mean brake reaction time, steering variability, the total number of (fatal and nonfatal) collisions during the 12-minute evaluation course on the driving simulator, and the score of the 18-item Simulator Driving Performance Scale.

Results  Using Mann-Whitney U tests, the brake reaction time and the steering variability in the cancer group were significantly longer and larger, respectively, than those in the control group (P = .04) and (P = .02). However, no significant differences were found between the 2 groups in the mean rank scores for average speed, total number of collisions, and Simulator Driving Performance Scale (P >.05 for all).

Conclusions  This pilot study provides preliminary evidence indicating inferior driving performance in a group of patients with cancer in the head and neck region when compared with a community control group. Further study is needed to investigate factors attributing to the difference.

Author Affiliations: Occupational Therapy Educational Program, College of Health Professions (Dr Yuen), Division of Head and Neck Oncologic Surgery, Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, College of Medicine (Drs Gillespie and Day), Department of Radiation Oncology, College of Medicine (Dr Sharma), and Department of Biostatistics, Bioinformatics, and Epidemiology (Dr Bandyopadhyay), Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston; and Department of Psychiatry, State University of New York, Upstate Medical University, Syracuse (Dr Barkley).

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