Review of tests contributing to the occupational therapy off-road driver assessment

In order to make evidence-based decisions in clinical environments, therapists must use psychometrically sound measures of client skill and performance (Ellenberg, 1996). In the area of driver assessment and rehabilitation, suitably qualified occupational therapists in Australia currently use a variety of unstandardised assessments or parts of standardised tests in the off-road environment (Lovell & DiStefano, 2003). Therapists combine the results of these assessments with on-road test results to make licence recommendations for older and functionally impaired individuals to the state licensing authority. The aim of this paper is to document and review off-road driver assessments reported in the published literature or used by occupational therapists in Australia. No other driver test review papers could be found in the published literature. Specifically, the paper examines assessments that purport to measure client skill and performance in the areas of basic cognitive and perceptual skills, reaction time, and road law knowledge. As a resource for clinicians, a summary of each assessment is included in Appendix 1, and it includes information such as aims, scoring, cost and availability, strengths and weaknesses and the level of skills measured according to Michon’s model of driver behaviour (van Zomeren, Brouwer & Minderhound, 1987). The findings of this review can be used to guide occupational therapy driver assessors in their selection of off-road assessments, and contribute to future research to develop a standardised off-road driver assessment for occupational therapists.