Syncope and subsequent traffic crash: A responsibility analysis

• Published in: PloS one 2023-01, Vol.18 (1), p.e0279710-e0279710
• Main Authors: Staples, John A, Erdelyi, Shannon, Merchant, Ketki, Yip, Candace, Khan, Mayesha, Redelmeier, Donald A, Chan, Herbert, Brubacher, Jeffrey R
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accidents, Traffic; Automobile drivers' licenses; Automobile Driving; Causes of; Crashes; Driving ability; Emergency medical care; Emergency medical services; Empirical analysis; Engineering and Technology; Fainting; Health risks; Humans; Licenses; Licensing; Logistic Models; Management; Medical records; Medicine and Health Sciences; People and Places; Physical Sciences; Police; Prescription drugs; Prevention; Retrospective Studies; Roads & highways; Statistics; Subgroups; Syncope; Syncope - epidemiology; Traffic; Traffic accidents; Traffic safety; Vehicle safety
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0279710

Physicians are often asked to counsel patients about driving safety after syncope, yet little empirical data guides such advice. We identified a population-based retrospective cohort of 9,507 individuals with a driver license who were discharged from any of six urban emergency departments (EDs) with a diagnosis of 'syncope and collapse'. We examined all police-reported crashes that involved a cohort member as a driver and occurred between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2016. We categorized crash-involved drivers as 'responsible' or 'non-responsible' for their crash using detailed police-reported crash data and a validated responsibility scoring tool. We then used logistic regression to test the hypothesis that recent syncope was associated with driver responsibility for crash. Over the 7-year study interval, cohort members were involved in 475 police-reported crashes: 210 drivers were deemed responsible and 133 drivers were deemed non-responsible for their crash; the 132 drivers deemed to have indeterminate responsibility were excluded from further analysis. An ED visit for syncope occurred in the three months leading up to crash in 11 crash-responsible drivers and in 5 crash-non-responsible drivers, suggesting that recent syncope was not associated with driver responsibility for crash (adjusted odds ratio, 1.31; 95%CI, 0.40-4.74; p = 0.67). However, all drivers with cardiac syncope were deemed responsible, precluding calculation of an odds ratio for this important subgroup. Recent syncope was not significantly associated with driver responsibility for traffic crash. Clinicians and policymakers should consider these results when making fitness-to-drive recommendations after syncope.