New Fitness-to-Drive Screening Measure Short Form May Reduce Administration Time and Provide Acceptable Psychometric Properties

The Fitness-to-Drive Screening Measure is a free screening tool, available online for caregivers and family members of older drivers, including occupational therapy practitioners that detects and rates a driver’s difficulties in performing tasks. The initial study funded by the Center for Multimodal Solutions for Congestion Mitigation (CMS), which was the UFTI’s 2007 USDOT grant-funded, Tier-1 University Transportation Center, produced 54 questions, which took 20 minutes to complete making it less practical for clinical use. This study aimed to shorten the existing 54-item Fitness-to-Drive Screening Measure (FTDS) without sacrificing the tool’s validity. Twenty-one items were selected for the short form from the original 54 items. Reducing the 54-item FTDS using mixed methods shortened the tool and completion time without forfeiting this screening tool’s ability to accurately predict older driver’s pass or fail outcomes. Dr. Sherrilene Classen, Dr. Sergio Romero, Dr. Mi Jung Lee and Ms. Shabnam Medhizadah from the Department of Occupational Therapy at UF published the article “Construction and Validation of the 21 Item Fitness-to-Drive Screening Measure Short-Form” in Frontiers: Public Health.