487255 research-article2013
JAGXXX10.1177/0733464813487255Journal of Applied GerontologyWeeks et al.
Original Article
The influence of Driving Status on Transportation Challenges Experienced by Older Adults
Journal of Applied Gerontology 2015, Vol. 34(4) 501–517 © The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0733464813487255 jag.sagepub.com
Lori E. Weeks1, Robin Stadnyk2, Lorraine Begley1, and Dany J. MacDonald1
Abstract We explored the severity, number, and reasons for transportation challenges experienced by older adult drivers, nondrivers who live with a driver, and nondrivers who do not live with a driver. A random sample of 1,670 Atlantic Canadian community-dwelling older adults completed a mailed survey. Drivers comprised 80% of the participants. Just more than one fifth of participants experienced at least occasional transportation challenges. Two thirds of nondrivers who lived with a driver reported having no transportation challenges. Almost half of the nondrivers who did not live with a driver indicated never experiencing transportation challenges, and 84% of drivers had no transportation challenges. Nondrivers who did not live with a driver experienced greater frequency and severity of transportation challenges. This research contributes to our understanding of the characteristics of older adults with different driving statuses and their transportation challenges, which can contribute to providing appropriate transportation supports for older adults in the future. Keywords drivers, nondrivers, challenges, Atlantic Canada, survey Manuscript received: August 27, 2013; final revision received: February 28, 2013; accepted: March 30, 2013. 1University 2Dalhousie
of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Corresponding Author: Lori E. Weeks, Associate Professor, Department of Applied Human Sciences, University of Prince Edward Island, 550 University Avenue, Charlottetown PEI, C1A 4P3, Canada. Email: [email protected] Downloaded from jag.sagepub.com at University of Sydney on November 13, 2015
502
Journal of Applied Gerontology 34(4)
Like many other countries, Canada is a car-dependent nation and, consequently, there is a great deal of research interest in understanding predictors of driving cessation and safely keeping older adults driving as long as possible (Davey, 2007; Dickerson et al., 2007; Horowitz, Boerner, & Reinhardt, 2002; Ragland, Satariano, & MacLeod, 2004). Access to a vehicle is particularly important for older rural adults who lack access to public transportation (Dobbs & Strain, 2008). Older adults who, for various reasons, do not have access to public transportation and are thus reliant on private vehicles can be divided into the categories of those who drive their own vehicle, those who do not drive a vehicle but they live with someone who drives, and those who do not drive and they do not live with someone who drives. In this article, we explore the transportation challenges experienced by older adults in these three groups. We define transportation challenges as situations when older adults have difficulties getting where they want to go when they want to go. While it is not difficult to conceptualize the myriad of ways that nondrivers could experience transportation challenges, it is more difficult to envision how drivers experience challenges related to transportation, and little is known about the transportation challenges faced by older adults, both for those who drive and for those who do not (Dupuis, Weiss, & Wolfson, 2007). We know that with increasing age, older adults with access to a vehicle may experience difficulty with driving (Alsnih & Hensher, 2003). While the vast majority of adults above age 65 are drivers, the number of drivers does decline with increasing age (Foley, Heimovitz, Guralnik, & Brock, 2002; Turcotte, 2006) and life expectancy exceeds safe driving expectancy by about 6 years for men and 10 years for women (Foley et al., 2002; Silverstein, 2008). Driving requires key skills in terms of visual and physical acuity (Olson, 2005) and cognition (Edwards, Bart, O’Connor, & Cissell, 2010). Aging-related declines in these areas result in many older adults deciding to cease driving in their late 70s and early 80s or to restrict their driving to specific times, weather conditions, road types, or neighborhoods (Engels & Liu, 2011). Older drivers are less likely to voluntarily cease, or reduce, driving if they have others who rely on them for transportation (Rudman, Friedland, Chipman, & Sciortino, 2006; Tuokko, McGee, & Rhodes, 2006). This research evidence indicates that the challenges that drivers face warrant further attention. In comparison to the transportation challenges experienced by drivers, more attention has been paid to the transportation challenges experienced by nondrivers and the impact of these challenges on their lives. Health, mobility, and social interaction are indicators of healthy aging and healthy communities (Clarke & Warren, 2007; Keefe, Andrew, Fancey, & Hall, 2006). Not being able to drive and not having access to other forms of transportation may
Downloaded from jag.sagepub.com at University of Sydney on November 13, 2015
503
Weeks et al.
lead to social isolation, a loss of independence, health deterioration, and depression (Azad, Byszewski, Amos, & Molnar, 2002; Davey, 2007; Glasgow & Blakely, 2000; MacDonald & Hebert, 2010; Turcotte, 2006; Ziegler & Schwanen, 2011), especially if the older adult has to request someone drive him or her (Bryanton, Weeks, & Jees, 2010; Harrison & Ragland 2003; Marottoli et al., 2000). Older nondrivers make 65% fewer trips to visit family and friends (Turcotte, 2006). Canadian research shows that older adults without access to either public transportation or a household vehicle are much less likely to leave their dwelling during the day than are older adults with a vehicle or with access to other transportation options (Turcotte, 2006). In addition to social needs, older adults experience problems “reliably meeting their daily living needs due to inconsistent or unavailable private and public transportation options” (Marx, Davis, Miftari, Salamone, & Weise, 2010, p. 463). Older adult nondrivers are not a homogeneous group, and they encounter many different reasons for experiencing transportation challenges. Some of these can be physical or structural factors in the environment, while others are related to the individual person and those around them. Even if nondrivers do have access to transportation, they can experience transportation challenges. For example, Rosenbloom (2009) identified that older adults who rely on their informal network for transportation limit their travel as much as possible for fear of being a nuisance. While some older adults may not appear to have transportation challenges, they may worry about the continued availability and reliability of transportation (Marx et al., 2010). Older adults who face challenges with transportation tend to lack access to a vehicle, are relatively new to their communities, are older, are women from minority groups, live with minors, live in suburban or rural locations, live in poverty, and are women (Dupuis et al., 2007; Kim, 2011; Litman, 2003; Engels & Liu, 2011; Turcotte, 2006). In some cases, the challenge with transportation may not be related to health but related to financial affordability, unreliability, and lack of transportation alternatives (Litman, 2003). It is clear that many older adults may find themselves stranded without options (Rosenbloom, 2001). Given the relatively sparse research on older drivers and nondrivers, and especially studies where both groups are included, the purpose of this study is to provide further insight into transportation challenges experienced by older adults based on their driving status. The specific hypotheses that will be tested in this study are as follows: Hypothesis 1: The characteristics of participants vary significantly by driving status. Hypothesis 2: The majority of drivers report not experiencing transportation challenges.
Downloaded from jag.sagepub.com at University of Sydney on November 13, 2015
504
Journal of Applied Gerontology 34(4)
Hypothesis 3: The majority of nondrivers report experiencing transportation challenges. Hypothesis 4: Nondrivers report experiencing more transportation challenges than drivers. Hypothesis 5: Driving status influences reasons for transportation challenges.
Method Several Research Ethics Boards in Atlantic Canada, including the University of Prince Edward Island Research Ethics Board and the Health Sciences Research Ethics Board at Dalhousie University, approved this study of the Atlantic Seniors Housing Research Alliance (ASHRA). Criteria for participation included being aged 65 years and above and living independently in the community (i.e., not living in an institutional setting such as a nursing home, prison, or hospital) in the four Atlantic Canadian provinces. The research team maintained random procedures for selecting participants in each of the four provinces. In three provinces, the Department of Health randomly selected participants from the provincial Medicare database. In one province, we could not obtain a random sample from the provincial Medicare database, so random digit dialing was used to obtain a random sample. We mailed each potential participant an information letter explaining the project and inviting their participation as well as a reply form with a postagepaid envelope. Several weeks after the initial mailing, those individuals who had not returned reply forms received a follow-up letter by mail. We sent every individual who returned a reply form a package that included a survey, a cover letter, and a postage-paid envelope. Of the 8,880 surveys sent, 1,670 usable surveys were returned, resulting in a response rate of 19%. ASHRA received permission from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) to use and adapt the Seniors’ Housing and Support Services Survey. With the assistance of stakeholders in each of the four Atlantic Canadian provinces, we adapted the survey in a variety of ways including using a determinants-of-health approach; addressing the unique issues, languages, and cultures in Atlantic Canada; and modifying the survey to be conducive to being mailed to older adults to complete on their own, instead of a face-to-face interview format. We made revisions to the survey following pilot testing with 42 older adults. The pilot results indicated that respondents required a mean time of 1 hr to complete the survey. The final 70-page survey contained sections concerning current housing and living arrangements, feelings about various housing options, transportation needs, difficulties with personal care and daily living activities, support services,
Downloaded from jag.sagepub.com at University of Sydney on November 13, 2015
505
Weeks et al.
future housing plans and needs, and demographic information including detailed financial situation questions. In this article, we report on data collected about driving status and transportation challenges experienced by the participants. We divided the sample into three categories based on their own driving status and whether they live with a driver: (a) current drivers; (b) those who do not drive but live with a driver; and (c) those who do not drive and do not live with a driver. We examined the transportation challenges experienced by participants in each of these three categories by asking the question “How often do you have difficulty getting where you want to go at the time you need to go.” This question had four possible responses: never, occasionally, fairly often, and very often. Participants who indicated occasionally, fairly often, or very often having transportation challenges could indicate the reasons why they had challenges with transportation by checking any item that applied from a list of five items and writing about any additional reason not included in the list. As many participants wrote additional responses not included in the list, these were coded into categories, resulting in a list of 10 different reasons for experiencing transportation challenges along with an “other” category. We then divided the number of different reasons for experiencing transportation challenges for each participant into three categories. Due to small cell sizes for some variables, we calculated significant differences by driving status for the characteristics of the participants only. Significant differences were calculated using chi-square analyses between the groups. For all analyses, the alpha level was set at .05.
Results Participant Characteristics We determined the representativeness of our sample to the population by comparing the characteristics of our sample to Statistics Canada census data in Atlantic Canada for adults age 65 and older. This comparison indicated that in general, the ASRHA participants had quite similar characteristics to the population of older adults in Atlantic Canada, especially for the variables sex, age, urban or rural location, health status, and homeownership status. The participants ranged in age from 65 to 102 years with a mean age of 73.4 years (SD = 6.3). The sample was slightly younger than the population with 5.4% fewer participants in the age 85 and older category compared to the population. Our sample included 10.3% more older adults who were married or in a common-law relationship than in the population, and we sampled 5.9% fewer widowed persons than in the population. The largest difference
Downloaded from jag.sagepub.com at University of Sydney on November 13, 2015
506
Journal of Applied Gerontology 34(4)
between the sample and the population occurred for income level, with our sample including 20.6% in the lowest income category of less than Can$20,000 in annual income compared to 58.5% in this income bracket in the population. Consequently, our sample included a higher proportion of participants in the higher income categories than in the population, with 7.9% more participants in our sample than in the population with an annual income of Can$60,000 or more. A total of 30.4% of participants were recipients of the federal Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) that is allotted to low-income older Canadians. In the following sections, we include our results pertaining to each hypothesis.
The Characteristics of Participants Vary Significantly by Driving Status In Table 1, we presented the characteristics of the participants in our sample by their driving status. As significant differences emerged between groups for all variables, this hypothesis is supported by our data. While almost 80% of the participants were current drivers, just above 10% did not drive but they lived with a driver, and for the remaining 10% of the sample, they did not drive and did not live with a driver. Women comprised 80% of the nondrivers in our sample. The proportion of older adults who drove declined with age. Drivers identified their health as better than nondrivers. Nondrivers who did not live with someone who drove tended to live alone. Nondrivers spent a larger proportion of their income on housing than drivers. Nondrivers who did not live with a driver were much more unlikely to own their own homes than those in the other driving statuses. Receipt of the GIS was more common for nondrivers and in particular for those nondrivers not living with a driver. In sum, compared to drivers, nondrivers were more likely to be older, women, in poorer health, spend a higher proportion of their income on shelter costs, rent their homes, live alone, and receive the GIS. Those who neither drove nor lived with a driver were more likely to be older, spend a high proportion of their income on housing, rent their home, receive the GIS, live alone, and live in an urban area.
The Majority of Drivers Report Not Experiencing Transportation Challenges In Table 2, we present results on the frequency that the participants experienced transportation challenges by driving status. Just above one in five survey respondents indicated that they either occasionally (n = 305), fairly often (n = 32), or very often (n = 7) had difficulty getting where they want to go
Downloaded from jag.sagepub.com at University of Sydney on November 13, 2015
507
Weeks et al. Table 1. Characteristics of Survey Participants by Driving Status. Drivers n (%)
Characteristic Age 65-74 75-84 85 and older Sex Women Men Self-rated Health Very poor or poor Fair
Nondrivers who Nondrivers who do live with a driver not live with a driver n (%) n (%)
Totals n (%)
pa value
JAGXXX10.1177/0733464813487255Journal of Applied GerontologyWeeks et al.
Original Article
The influence of Driving Status on Transportation Challenges Experienced by Older Adults
Journal of Applied Gerontology 2015, Vol. 34(4) 501–517 © The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0733464813487255 jag.sagepub.com
Lori E. Weeks1, Robin Stadnyk2, Lorraine Begley1, and Dany J. MacDonald1
Abstract We explored the severity, number, and reasons for transportation challenges experienced by older adult drivers, nondrivers who live with a driver, and nondrivers who do not live with a driver. A random sample of 1,670 Atlantic Canadian community-dwelling older adults completed a mailed survey. Drivers comprised 80% of the participants. Just more than one fifth of participants experienced at least occasional transportation challenges. Two thirds of nondrivers who lived with a driver reported having no transportation challenges. Almost half of the nondrivers who did not live with a driver indicated never experiencing transportation challenges, and 84% of drivers had no transportation challenges. Nondrivers who did not live with a driver experienced greater frequency and severity of transportation challenges. This research contributes to our understanding of the characteristics of older adults with different driving statuses and their transportation challenges, which can contribute to providing appropriate transportation supports for older adults in the future. Keywords drivers, nondrivers, challenges, Atlantic Canada, survey Manuscript received: August 27, 2013; final revision received: February 28, 2013; accepted: March 30, 2013. 1University 2Dalhousie
of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Corresponding Author: Lori E. Weeks, Associate Professor, Department of Applied Human Sciences, University of Prince Edward Island, 550 University Avenue, Charlottetown PEI, C1A 4P3, Canada. Email: [email protected] Downloaded from jag.sagepub.com at University of Sydney on November 13, 2015
502
Journal of Applied Gerontology 34(4)
Like many other countries, Canada is a car-dependent nation and, consequently, there is a great deal of research interest in understanding predictors of driving cessation and safely keeping older adults driving as long as possible (Davey, 2007; Dickerson et al., 2007; Horowitz, Boerner, & Reinhardt, 2002; Ragland, Satariano, & MacLeod, 2004). Access to a vehicle is particularly important for older rural adults who lack access to public transportation (Dobbs & Strain, 2008). Older adults who, for various reasons, do not have access to public transportation and are thus reliant on private vehicles can be divided into the categories of those who drive their own vehicle, those who do not drive a vehicle but they live with someone who drives, and those who do not drive and they do not live with someone who drives. In this article, we explore the transportation challenges experienced by older adults in these three groups. We define transportation challenges as situations when older adults have difficulties getting where they want to go when they want to go. While it is not difficult to conceptualize the myriad of ways that nondrivers could experience transportation challenges, it is more difficult to envision how drivers experience challenges related to transportation, and little is known about the transportation challenges faced by older adults, both for those who drive and for those who do not (Dupuis, Weiss, & Wolfson, 2007). We know that with increasing age, older adults with access to a vehicle may experience difficulty with driving (Alsnih & Hensher, 2003). While the vast majority of adults above age 65 are drivers, the number of drivers does decline with increasing age (Foley, Heimovitz, Guralnik, & Brock, 2002; Turcotte, 2006) and life expectancy exceeds safe driving expectancy by about 6 years for men and 10 years for women (Foley et al., 2002; Silverstein, 2008). Driving requires key skills in terms of visual and physical acuity (Olson, 2005) and cognition (Edwards, Bart, O’Connor, & Cissell, 2010). Aging-related declines in these areas result in many older adults deciding to cease driving in their late 70s and early 80s or to restrict their driving to specific times, weather conditions, road types, or neighborhoods (Engels & Liu, 2011). Older drivers are less likely to voluntarily cease, or reduce, driving if they have others who rely on them for transportation (Rudman, Friedland, Chipman, & Sciortino, 2006; Tuokko, McGee, & Rhodes, 2006). This research evidence indicates that the challenges that drivers face warrant further attention. In comparison to the transportation challenges experienced by drivers, more attention has been paid to the transportation challenges experienced by nondrivers and the impact of these challenges on their lives. Health, mobility, and social interaction are indicators of healthy aging and healthy communities (Clarke & Warren, 2007; Keefe, Andrew, Fancey, & Hall, 2006). Not being able to drive and not having access to other forms of transportation may
Downloaded from jag.sagepub.com at University of Sydney on November 13, 2015
503
Weeks et al.
lead to social isolation, a loss of independence, health deterioration, and depression (Azad, Byszewski, Amos, & Molnar, 2002; Davey, 2007; Glasgow & Blakely, 2000; MacDonald & Hebert, 2010; Turcotte, 2006; Ziegler & Schwanen, 2011), especially if the older adult has to request someone drive him or her (Bryanton, Weeks, & Jees, 2010; Harrison & Ragland 2003; Marottoli et al., 2000). Older nondrivers make 65% fewer trips to visit family and friends (Turcotte, 2006). Canadian research shows that older adults without access to either public transportation or a household vehicle are much less likely to leave their dwelling during the day than are older adults with a vehicle or with access to other transportation options (Turcotte, 2006). In addition to social needs, older adults experience problems “reliably meeting their daily living needs due to inconsistent or unavailable private and public transportation options” (Marx, Davis, Miftari, Salamone, & Weise, 2010, p. 463). Older adult nondrivers are not a homogeneous group, and they encounter many different reasons for experiencing transportation challenges. Some of these can be physical or structural factors in the environment, while others are related to the individual person and those around them. Even if nondrivers do have access to transportation, they can experience transportation challenges. For example, Rosenbloom (2009) identified that older adults who rely on their informal network for transportation limit their travel as much as possible for fear of being a nuisance. While some older adults may not appear to have transportation challenges, they may worry about the continued availability and reliability of transportation (Marx et al., 2010). Older adults who face challenges with transportation tend to lack access to a vehicle, are relatively new to their communities, are older, are women from minority groups, live with minors, live in suburban or rural locations, live in poverty, and are women (Dupuis et al., 2007; Kim, 2011; Litman, 2003; Engels & Liu, 2011; Turcotte, 2006). In some cases, the challenge with transportation may not be related to health but related to financial affordability, unreliability, and lack of transportation alternatives (Litman, 2003). It is clear that many older adults may find themselves stranded without options (Rosenbloom, 2001). Given the relatively sparse research on older drivers and nondrivers, and especially studies where both groups are included, the purpose of this study is to provide further insight into transportation challenges experienced by older adults based on their driving status. The specific hypotheses that will be tested in this study are as follows: Hypothesis 1: The characteristics of participants vary significantly by driving status. Hypothesis 2: The majority of drivers report not experiencing transportation challenges.
Downloaded from jag.sagepub.com at University of Sydney on November 13, 2015
504
Journal of Applied Gerontology 34(4)
Hypothesis 3: The majority of nondrivers report experiencing transportation challenges. Hypothesis 4: Nondrivers report experiencing more transportation challenges than drivers. Hypothesis 5: Driving status influences reasons for transportation challenges.
Method Several Research Ethics Boards in Atlantic Canada, including the University of Prince Edward Island Research Ethics Board and the Health Sciences Research Ethics Board at Dalhousie University, approved this study of the Atlantic Seniors Housing Research Alliance (ASHRA). Criteria for participation included being aged 65 years and above and living independently in the community (i.e., not living in an institutional setting such as a nursing home, prison, or hospital) in the four Atlantic Canadian provinces. The research team maintained random procedures for selecting participants in each of the four provinces. In three provinces, the Department of Health randomly selected participants from the provincial Medicare database. In one province, we could not obtain a random sample from the provincial Medicare database, so random digit dialing was used to obtain a random sample. We mailed each potential participant an information letter explaining the project and inviting their participation as well as a reply form with a postagepaid envelope. Several weeks after the initial mailing, those individuals who had not returned reply forms received a follow-up letter by mail. We sent every individual who returned a reply form a package that included a survey, a cover letter, and a postage-paid envelope. Of the 8,880 surveys sent, 1,670 usable surveys were returned, resulting in a response rate of 19%. ASHRA received permission from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) to use and adapt the Seniors’ Housing and Support Services Survey. With the assistance of stakeholders in each of the four Atlantic Canadian provinces, we adapted the survey in a variety of ways including using a determinants-of-health approach; addressing the unique issues, languages, and cultures in Atlantic Canada; and modifying the survey to be conducive to being mailed to older adults to complete on their own, instead of a face-to-face interview format. We made revisions to the survey following pilot testing with 42 older adults. The pilot results indicated that respondents required a mean time of 1 hr to complete the survey. The final 70-page survey contained sections concerning current housing and living arrangements, feelings about various housing options, transportation needs, difficulties with personal care and daily living activities, support services,
Downloaded from jag.sagepub.com at University of Sydney on November 13, 2015
505
Weeks et al.
future housing plans and needs, and demographic information including detailed financial situation questions. In this article, we report on data collected about driving status and transportation challenges experienced by the participants. We divided the sample into three categories based on their own driving status and whether they live with a driver: (a) current drivers; (b) those who do not drive but live with a driver; and (c) those who do not drive and do not live with a driver. We examined the transportation challenges experienced by participants in each of these three categories by asking the question “How often do you have difficulty getting where you want to go at the time you need to go.” This question had four possible responses: never, occasionally, fairly often, and very often. Participants who indicated occasionally, fairly often, or very often having transportation challenges could indicate the reasons why they had challenges with transportation by checking any item that applied from a list of five items and writing about any additional reason not included in the list. As many participants wrote additional responses not included in the list, these were coded into categories, resulting in a list of 10 different reasons for experiencing transportation challenges along with an “other” category. We then divided the number of different reasons for experiencing transportation challenges for each participant into three categories. Due to small cell sizes for some variables, we calculated significant differences by driving status for the characteristics of the participants only. Significant differences were calculated using chi-square analyses between the groups. For all analyses, the alpha level was set at .05.
Results Participant Characteristics We determined the representativeness of our sample to the population by comparing the characteristics of our sample to Statistics Canada census data in Atlantic Canada for adults age 65 and older. This comparison indicated that in general, the ASRHA participants had quite similar characteristics to the population of older adults in Atlantic Canada, especially for the variables sex, age, urban or rural location, health status, and homeownership status. The participants ranged in age from 65 to 102 years with a mean age of 73.4 years (SD = 6.3). The sample was slightly younger than the population with 5.4% fewer participants in the age 85 and older category compared to the population. Our sample included 10.3% more older adults who were married or in a common-law relationship than in the population, and we sampled 5.9% fewer widowed persons than in the population. The largest difference
Downloaded from jag.sagepub.com at University of Sydney on November 13, 2015
506
Journal of Applied Gerontology 34(4)
between the sample and the population occurred for income level, with our sample including 20.6% in the lowest income category of less than Can$20,000 in annual income compared to 58.5% in this income bracket in the population. Consequently, our sample included a higher proportion of participants in the higher income categories than in the population, with 7.9% more participants in our sample than in the population with an annual income of Can$60,000 or more. A total of 30.4% of participants were recipients of the federal Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) that is allotted to low-income older Canadians. In the following sections, we include our results pertaining to each hypothesis.
The Characteristics of Participants Vary Significantly by Driving Status In Table 1, we presented the characteristics of the participants in our sample by their driving status. As significant differences emerged between groups for all variables, this hypothesis is supported by our data. While almost 80% of the participants were current drivers, just above 10% did not drive but they lived with a driver, and for the remaining 10% of the sample, they did not drive and did not live with a driver. Women comprised 80% of the nondrivers in our sample. The proportion of older adults who drove declined with age. Drivers identified their health as better than nondrivers. Nondrivers who did not live with someone who drove tended to live alone. Nondrivers spent a larger proportion of their income on housing than drivers. Nondrivers who did not live with a driver were much more unlikely to own their own homes than those in the other driving statuses. Receipt of the GIS was more common for nondrivers and in particular for those nondrivers not living with a driver. In sum, compared to drivers, nondrivers were more likely to be older, women, in poorer health, spend a higher proportion of their income on shelter costs, rent their homes, live alone, and receive the GIS. Those who neither drove nor lived with a driver were more likely to be older, spend a high proportion of their income on housing, rent their home, receive the GIS, live alone, and live in an urban area.
The Majority of Drivers Report Not Experiencing Transportation Challenges In Table 2, we present results on the frequency that the participants experienced transportation challenges by driving status. Just above one in five survey respondents indicated that they either occasionally (n = 305), fairly often (n = 32), or very often (n = 7) had difficulty getting where they want to go
Downloaded from jag.sagepub.com at University of Sydney on November 13, 2015
507
Weeks et al. Table 1. Characteristics of Survey Participants by Driving Status. Drivers n (%)
Characteristic Age 65-74 75-84 85 and older Sex Women Men Self-rated Health Very poor or poor Fair
Nondrivers who Nondrivers who do live with a driver not live with a driver n (%) n (%)
Totals n (%)
pa value
