{"id":603272,"date":"2026-09-17T13:56:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T13:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/603272\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T13:56:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T13:56:14","slug":"older-drivers-no-longer-face-routine-cognitive-screening-based-on-age-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/603272\/","title":{"rendered":"Older drivers no longer face routine cognitive screening based on age alone"},"content":{"rendered":"

He was among older drivers backing the change, Bruce told Kerre Woodham Mornings on Newstalk ZB yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always got through the test, but to be honest, some of the questions are quite silly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CaseyCasey Costello is Seniors Minister in New Zealand. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

This included asking a person to immediately repeat a sentence said to them, and then repeat the sentence again after other questions had been asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if I threw [that] at you and then a whole pile of questions, you\u2019d probably have the same [problem].\u201d<\/p>\n

Before Tuesday\u2019s announcement, most GPs were using the Mini-Addenbrooke\u2019s Cognitive Examination test on older drivers seeking to renew their licences, Grey Power president David Marshall said.<\/p>\n

It tests attention, memory, and fluency with questions including what day and date it is, repeating a name and address said to participants, and naming as many animals as possible in one minute, with the highest score for those naming more than 22.<\/p>\n

The test also included drawing a clock face with the hands at 10 past 5, and ending with the participant again asked to repeat the name and address given to them earlier. <\/p>\n

However, the tests were applied inconsistently, with some not testing all applicants, or only asking them some of the questions, Marshall said.<\/p>\n

There was also no evidence cognitive tests reliably predicted driving ability, with a subsequent NZ Transport Agency and Office for Seniors-funded University of Auckland study leading to this week\u2019s changes, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The study was] to see, \u2018Is there evidence that supports the use of a cognitive test for driving ability?\u2019 And basically the answer is no.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe first page of the Mini-Addenbrooke\u2019s Cognitive Examination New Zealand Version A, covering attention, memory and animal-naming fluency tasks.\"TheThe second page of the Mini-Addenbrooke\u2019s Cognitive Examination New Zealand Version A, featuring clock drawing, memory recall and final scoring sections.<\/p>\n

ZB caller Bruce said he\u2019d always got through the test because his doctor took a \u201creally sensible view\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think some of them were a bit unfair to some people who get really nervous.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if you go to your own doctor, he knows whether you\u2019re a bit gaga or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NewstalkNewstalk ZB host Kerre Woodham spoke to seniors about changes to driver licensing cognitive testing for older drivers. Photo \/ Jason Dorday<\/p>\n

Woodham countered that her \u201cdarling mum\u201d was able to renew her licence when she had early onset dementia.<\/p>\n

\u201cBad move.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another caller, Pat, said she turns 84 next week and has a 7m motorhome she drives around New Zealand.<\/p>\n

She had words of assurance for other over-75s renewing their licences<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just no problem at all \u2026 I\u2019ve recently done my new relicensing test and I had to do it with the doctor\u2019s nurse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new test is easy. It\u2019s just a matter of being able to go from A, B to C to D, you just draw lines around this piece of paper to these numbers like join the dots. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe second test was a little bit more difficult because it was join the dots again, but you went A1, B2, C3, D4 around this chart.\u201d<\/p>\n

An 88-year-old caller told Woodham he stopped driving nine years ago because of failing eyesight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t get someone to say, \u2018Well, you can\u2019t see, therefore you can\u2019t drive\u2019. I took the decision myself because \u2026 if I can\u2019t see clearly things I\u2019m putting anybody at risk that I come across, plus myself. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do I want to take that risk?\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He was among older drivers backing the change, Bruce told Kerre Woodham Mornings on Newstalk ZB yesterday. \u201cI\u2019ve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7127,34384,9852,111572,124,799,19552,15211,15453,2550,1872,42,2250,43,7805,24808,90,2682,384,13910,17146,12508,110075,42912,2838,2839,68616,544,764,40,38,41,39,1315,3608,28028],"class_list":["post-603272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-age","tag-alone","tag-based","tag-cognitive","tag-could","tag-dementia","tag-driver","tag-drivers","tag-elderly","tag-even","tag-face","tag-headlines","tag-longer","tag-news","tag-no","tag-older","tag-on","tag-others","tag-people","tag-previously","tag-questions","tag-quite","tag-reckons","tag-required","tag-routine","tag-screening","tag-silly","tag-some","tag-tests","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-trip","tag-were","tag-younger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}