Older adults who stop driving are twice as likely to suffer from depression and are five times as likely to enter a long-term care facility. That’s according to a report released by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety and Columbia University.
The study looked at adults 65 and older who had permanently given up driving.
"When you have areas who are reliant on automobiles like Arizona and the Valley, where people are used to getting in their car and getting from point A to point B quite quickly, those affects can be felt more acutely," said Linda Gorman with AAA Arizona.
Gorman described the results as “surprising.”
The report also found non-drivers lost more than half their social circle over a 13-year period. There was also an accelerated decline in cognitive ability.
