Researchers of a new study found that ADHD and texting both impair a teenager's driving skills.
Previous studies have linked using cells phones while driving to serious driving impairment. However, in a new study, researchers from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center found that ADHD impairs a teenager's driving skills as much as texting while driving.
For the study, researchers used a driving simulator to test the driving performance of 61 16 and 17 years old drivers. Half of these participants were diagnosed with ADHD and the other half were not.
The driving stimulation lasted for 40 minutes. Participants were asked to text and talk on their cells phones as they drove while researchers measured their lane position and speed.
While researchers found that texting seriously impaired speed and lane positions for all study participants, having ADHD further aggravated the problem.
"Texting is especially dangerous because it involves visual, manual and cognitive distractions," said senior author Jeffery N. Epstein, PhD, director of the Center for Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder at Cincinnati Children's in a press release. "Those are the very kinds of distractions that lead to car accidents."
Even without distractions, drivers with ADHD demonstrated significantly more variability in speed and lane position than did teens without ADHD. Such drivers strayed off lane double the times non-ADHD drivers did.
"Teens as a group are already at increased risk of distracted driving accidents. Now we know that an ADHD diagnosis and texting while driving increase those risks," added Dr. Epstein. "Our results demonstrate the need for increased education and enforcement of regulations against texting while driving for this age group."
