Driving Safety: Concerns and Experiences of Parents of Adolescent Drivers with Type 1 Diabetes

Driving is a dangerous activity for adolescents, perhaps being even more precarious for adolescents with type 1 diabetes due to the possibility of extreme blood glucose (BG). There is no available data on adolescent driving safety concerns and type 1 diabetes. To begin addressing this issue, we surveyed parents regarding their observations and concerns. Seventy-two parents (87.5% mothers) of adolescent drivers aged 16–19 with type 1 diabetes provided analyzable data. Females comprised 36% of their adolescents, with 74% using pump therapy. In the past year, 13% and 84% of parents reported their adolescent had experienced severe or moderate disruptive hypoglycemia, respectively. Over half (56%) of the parents reported moderate to extreme worry about how diabetes impacted their adolescent’s driving, while only 21% of parents thought their adolescents had similar concerns (p=.037). Almost a third (31%) of parents thought their adolescent need not treat low BG until it fell below 70mg/dl; 13% thought their adolescent could safely drive with BG below 65mg/dl. And, 31% and 14% of parents, respectively, reported their adolescent had been in a collision or stopped by the police in the past year, which they attributed to both hypo- and hyperglycemia. Adolescents reportedly took steps to prevent hypo- and hyperglycemia while driving, but more aggressively avoided hypoglycemia (p’s<.001). While this data is limited, lacking a non-diabetic control group and randomized sample, it does suggest that driving and adolescent type 1 diabetes deserves further attention and investigation.