Association between driving status and visiting places among older adults in a suburban area in Japan: Findings from a cross-sectional survey

IntroductionDriving is an important mobility resource of increased outings and social activities among older adults; yet, little is known about the impact of driving restrictions on visiting places. We examined the association between driving status and the number of visiting places and the moderating role of alternative transportation use. MethodsThis cross-sectional study recruited community-dwelling individuals aged 65 years and above with functional independence from a suburban area through a mailed self-administered questionnaire. Visiting places were scored by assessing a total of 34 specific places over the past year using the Participation in ACTivities and Places OUTside Home Questionnaire (ACT-OUT); four subdomains of these paces were also measured: (A) consumer, administration, and self-care places (e.g., grocery shop, hairdresser, bank, post office, and government office); (B) places for medical and health care (e.g., the dentist or doctors office and hospital); (C) social, cultural, and spiritual places (e.g., family, relative and friends home, restaurant, cafe, and entertainment and cultural places); and (D) places of recreation and physical activities (e.g., park, sports facility, and forest, mountain, and sea). Driving status (self-driving or not) and other available transportation options (public transportation and ride-sharing with family/friends) were assessed. ResultsData from 432 individuals were analyzed (mean age 74.8 years; 52.8% women). Multivariable linear regression analysis revealed that not driving was associated with lower scores of visiting places ({beta}=-0.40, P<0.001). For subdomains, not driving was associated with lower scores for consumer, administration, and self-care places ({beta}=-0.32, P=0.007) and social, cultural, and spiritual places ({beta}=-0.44, P<0.001). Sensitivity analysis with inverse probability weighting confirmed the robustness of these results. Public transportation availability (trains and buses) moderated the association between not driving and visiting places. ConclusionsThese findings suggest that driving restrictions have the potential to reduce the visiting places among older adults, particularly life-related and social and cultural places.