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Watson et al 2015 - Mild hypohydration increases the frequency of driver errors during a prolonged, monotonous driving task.pdf (450.81 kB)

Mild hypohydration increases the frequency of driver errors during a prolonged, monotonous driving task

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posted on 2016-02-25, 14:32 authored by Phillip Watson, Andy Whale, Stephen MearsStephen Mears, Louise A. Reyner, Ronald J. Maughan
The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of mild hypohydration on performance during a prolonged, monotonous driving task. Methods: Eleven healthy males (age 22 ± 4 y) were instructed to consume a volume of fluid in line with published guidelines (HYD trial) or 25% of this intake (FR trial) in a crossover manner. Participants came to the laboratory the following morning after an overnight fast. One hour following a standard breakfast, a 120 min driving simulation task began. Driver errors, including instances of lane drifting or late breaking, EEG and heart rate were recorded throughout the driving task. Results: Pre-trial bodymass (P=0.692), urine osmolality (P=0.838) and serumosmolality (P=0.574)were the same on both trials. FR resulted in a 1.1±0.7% reduction in bodymass, compared to−0.1±0.6% in the HYD trial (P = 0.002). Urine and serum osmolality were both increased following FR (P b 0.05). There was a progressive increase in the total number of driver errors observed during both the HYD and FR trials, but significantly more incidents were recorded throughout the FR trial (HYD 47 ± 44, FR 101 ± 84; ES = 0.81; P = 0.006). Conclusions: The results of the present study suggest that mild hypohydration, produced a significant increase in minor driving errors during a prolonged, monotonous drive, compared to that observed while performing the same task in a hydrated condition. The magnitude of decrement reported,was similar to that observed following the ingestion of an alcoholic beverage resulting in a blood alcohol content of approximately 0.08% (the current UK legal driving limit), or while sleep deprived.

Funding

This work was funded in part by a grant from the European Hydration Institute (EHI).

History

School

  • Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences

Published in

PHYSIOLOGY & BEHAVIOR

Volume

147

Pages

313 - 318 (6)

Citation

WATSON, P. ...et al., 2015. Mild hypohydration increases the frequency of driver errors during a prolonged, monotonous driving task. Physiology & Behavior, 147, pp. 313-318.

Publisher

© The Authors. Published by Elsevier

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2015

Notes

This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Elsevier under the Creative Commons Attribution -NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Unported Licence (CC BY-NC-ND). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

ISSN

0031-9384

Language

  • en

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