Diabetes and Driving (4)
(first publication 2012)

2.4.0.0 Di­a­betes and Driv­ing (4) (first pub­li­ca­tion 2012)

Peo­ple with di­a­betes who wish to op­er­ate motor ve­hi­cles are sub­ject to a great va­ri­ety of li­cens­ing re­quire­ments ap­plied by both state and fed­er­al ju­ris­dic­tions, which may lead to loss of em­ploy­ment or sig­nif­i­cant re­stric­tions on a per­son’s li­cense. Pres­ence of a med­i­cal con­di­tion that can lead to significant­ly im­paired con­scious­ness or cog­ni­tion may lead to drivers being eval­u­ated for their fitness to drive. Peo­ple with di­a­betes should be in­di­vid­u­al­ly as­sessed by a health care pro­fes­sion­al knowl­edge­able in di­a­betes if li­cense re­stric­tions are being con­sid­ered, and pa­tients should be coun­seled about de­tect­ing and avoid­ing hy­po­glycemia while driv­ing. See the ADA po­si­tion state­ment “Di­a­betes and Driv­ing” (https://doi.org/10.2337/dc14-S097).

Ed­i­tor’s note: Fed­er­al com­mer­cial driv­ing rules for in­di­vid­u­als with in­sulin-treat­ed di­a­betes changed on 19 Novem­ber 2018. These changes will be reflected in an up­dat­ed ADA state­ment.