{"id":1253,"date":"2012-12-13T07:05:05","date_gmt":"2012-12-13T07:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/personalpolishing.wordpress.com\/?p=1253"},"modified":"2014-08-23T16:36:00","modified_gmt":"2014-08-23T16:36:00","slug":"biggest-road-risk-for-seniors-isnt-driving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/biggest-road-risk-for-seniors-isnt-driving\/","title":{"rendered":"Biggest Road Risk for Seniors Isn\u00e2\u0080\u0099t Driving"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Carole Jackson><\/strong>, Bottom Line Health<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u00e2\u0080\u0099s say that I asked you this question: Are senior citizens at greatest risk of dying from a car-related injury while walking, riding in the passenger seat of a car or driving?<\/p>\n

If you\u00e2\u0080\u0099re like me, then your guess would be driving. It\u00e2\u0080\u0099s just part of being human\u00e2\u0080\u0094as we age, our eyesight and reflexes (and maybe even our mental focus) all diminish\u00e2\u0080\u00a6and those are all vital for something as risky and difficult as driving.<\/p>\n

Well, a new British study found that seniors are actually in most danger while walking.<\/p>\n

How is that possible? I spoke with the researcher to find out\u00e2\u0080\u00a6<\/p>\n

PEDESTRIAN PERILS<\/h4>\n

A research team lead by Jonathan J. Rolison, PhD, analyzed all fatal injuries reported by police in Britain between 1989 and 2009 that were classified as \u00e2\u0080\u009croad traffic fatalities.\u00e2\u0080\u009d Meanwhile, the UK National Travel Survey had estimated the number of excursions\u00e2\u0080\u0094whether as a driver, passenger or pedestrian\u00e2\u0080\u0094made each year by individuals age 21 and up. When the researchers combined these two sets of data, they were able to calculate the risk that an individual would be fatally injured for each excursion.\u00c2\u00a0Here\u00e2\u0080\u0099s what they found\u00e2\u0080\u00a6<\/em><\/p>\n

When it came to both driver and passenger fatality rates, people age 70 and older had a higher rate than people who were considered \u00e2\u0080\u009cmiddle-aged\u00e2\u0080\u009d (between 30 and 69). But the rate of the older set was about equal to that of the youngest set\u00e2\u0080\u0094people between ages 21 and 29.<\/p>\n

When it came to the pedestrian fatality rate, however, seniors were far more likely to die than people in any other age group\u00e2\u0080\u0094and they were far more likely to die as pedestrians than while driving or sitting in a passenger seat.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cIn other words, seniors shouldn\u00e2\u0080\u0099t just be cautious about driving and riding in passenger seats in cars\u00e2\u0080\u0094they should also be cautious while walking,\u00e2\u0080\u009d said Rolison. \u00e2\u0080\u009cWalking is riskier than they might think.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/p>\n

SAFEGUARDING SENIORS<\/h4>\n

Anyone who is elderly should be extra careful while walking on or near roads. Seniors typically walk more slowly than younger individuals, and they more often misjudge the speed of approaching vehicles\u00e2\u0080\u0094often due to declining hearing and\/or sight. \u00e2\u0080\u009cThese things compromise their ability to safely cross streets,\u00e2\u0080\u009d said Dr. Rolison. And because they are usually more frail and susceptible to injury than younger people, they should cross streets only at designated crossing areas, ideally when no cars are in sight. It\u00e2\u0080\u0099s best for them to choose crossing areas that have timers if their neighborhood has any, because those will ensure that seniors have a particular amount of time to safely cross.<\/p>\n

Source:<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0Jonathan J. Rolison, PhD<\/a>, a psychology lecturer at Queen’s University, Belfast, Ireland. His study was published in\u00c2\u00a0Journal of the American Geriatrics Society<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Carole Jackson>, Bottom Line Health Let\u00e2\u0080\u0099s say that I asked you this question: Are senior citizens at greatest risk of dying from a car-related injury while walking, riding in the passenger seat of a car or driving? If you\u00e2\u0080\u0099re like me, then your guess would be driving. It\u00e2\u0080\u0099s just part of being human\u00e2\u0080\u0094as we … Continue reading Biggest Road Risk for Seniors Isn\u00e2\u0080\u0099t Driving<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","pmpro-has-access"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4MGMb-kd","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1371,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1253\/revisions\/1371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}