Higher Prevalence of Hypoglycemia and Unsafe Driving Practices in Adults With Type 1 Diabetes

Key Findings:

- In this study, researchers were investigating if there is a difference in driving behavior for people experiencing blood sugars out of normal range while driving.

- Researchers evaluated 33 participants, those with TID and those used for comparison, researchers assessed driving patterns and driving history compared to physiology over 848 driver days, 21,232 miles driven, and 3,687 drives for a total of 1894 driving trips were recorded and studied.

- Overall, DM drivers drove during at-risk glycemic states 12.75% of driving time, 3.38% in hypoglycemia and 9.37% of the time in hyperglycemia.

- Acceleration variability was used to assess driving risk. Acceleration profiles for participants experiencing hypoglycemia and severe hyperglycemia demonstrated different behaviors compared to drivers without diabetes and for people with diabetes within a normal blood sugar range.

- People with hypoglycemia had higher acceleration variability, whereas people with severe hyperglycemia had lower acceleration variability, demonstrating that different physiological responses in the different blood sugars can lead to different types of driving risk.

Conclusion: people who have diabetes drive while their blood sugar is not in range despite having changes in driving behavior when experiencing hypoglycemic or severe hyperglycemic events that add risk while driving. Developing driving specific tools to better alert people with diabetes of these hypo and severe hyperglycemic events while driving could help drivers keep their blood sugar in range and prevent these changes in driving behavior that add to the risk of having a vehicular accident.