Relationship of Sitting-Pressure Distribution and Driving Performance During Simulator Driving in Post-Stroke Drivers: A Pilot Study Results

Abstract

We examined the relationship the sitting-pressure distribution and driving performance during a simulator driving in post-stroke patients. 4 post-stroke drivers participated in this study. In this study, we developed an assessment environment using a driving simulator to evaluate driving performancce of stroke patients. The driving scenario consists of 3.5km urban traffic conditions (3 minutes), 10km divided 4-lane straight highway (6 minutes), and 7km 2-lane curved or hilly rural roads (6 minutes). Performance parameters during the simulated drive were automatically generated by the simulator software. The parameters included time-to-collision (TTC), number of road edge excursions, centerline crossings, speed limit violations, collisions, reaction time, and runtime. Pressure data from the mat were divided into four (right buttox, left buttox, right thigh, left thigh) and calculate the average contact area ratio, average contact pressure ratio,and average peak contact pressure ratio.We suggest the posibility that sitting pressure distribution may be a predictable variable of driving performance of post-stroke drivers.