Summary
This survey gives strong evidence to support issues that Eye Care Professionals deal with every day. Most Americans (73%) believe that vision correction would help their ability to drive at night, and yet only 27% of those drivers have sought help from an Eye Doctor. Why is there a discrepancy? Why doesn't everyone who has a vision problem get their eyes examined? Fears and misconceptions.
Analysis
Of the hundreds of patients I see in a month, there are always a handful that swear up and down that their vision is 'fine', or that they are 'very safe' drivers. Or, they admit to having difficulty driving at night, but either don't wear their glasses or are wearing a 5 year old pair of glasses. Most, though not all, of these patients are elderly, and all of them, young and old, take some serious convincing from me to get them to first, test for glasses, then to wear them. The survey showed that males over 50 years old were least likely to report having vision problems at night. I agree.
I realize that elderly patients who drive, see driving as a source of independence, and sometimes think that there is a conspiracy (of which, the DMV and Eye Doctors are part) working against them to try to take away their drivers' licenses. So, when they sit in my exam chair, they don't want to report that anything is wrong, so everything is 'fine'. Even when I find a significant improvement that I can make in their vision with a change in prescription, or a new prescription, I often meet with resistance. I actually had argument with one patient. I'm happy to say though, that I am successful most of the time, in convincing them that getting their glasses updated is the right thing to do. My argument goes something like this: "I know you think you see well, but your vision has changed since last year. And, we all know that our reaction time slows as time goes on. These new glasses will allow you to see further down the road so that you can react to changing conditions earlier, and be a safer driver." Luckily, most people want to be safer drivers.
There are some younger patients who resist vision correction as well. In my experience these tend to be mostly males, who may be the same ones who won't stop to ask for directions. or admit they're lost. Many of these patients have resisted getting their vision corrected because of a common misconception that wearing glasses makes your eyes weaker, or creates a reliance on glasses. I understand this thinking, but I make sure that they understand that this is not true. I inform them that our eyes will change over time regardless of how we correct them, or if we correct them at all. Glasses or contacts are only meant to make vision sharper and more comfortable. They will do nothing to 'weaken' the eyes.
Whether young or old, if a patient would benefit from vision correction, and indeed be a safer driver, we, as Eye Care Professionals, have a responsibility to be as convincing as possible in our recommendation for glasses. But, as the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. Hopefully, these horses that don't drink drive away from our office about a half hour before I do.
