Are grandparents safer drivers than mom and dad? (AP)

CHICAGO � Kids may be safest in cars when grandma or grandpa are driving instead of mom or dad, according to study results that even made the researchers do a double-take.

"We were surprised to discover that the injury rate was considerably lower in crashes where grandparents were the drivers," said Dr. Fred Henretig, an emergency medicine specialist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the study's lead author.

Previous evidence indicates that car crashes are more common in older drivers, mostly those beyond age 65. The study looked at injuries rather than who had more crashes, and found that children's risk for injury was 50 percent lower when riding with grandparents than with parents.

The results are from an analysis of State Farm insurance claims for 2003-07 car crashes in 15 states, and interviews with the drivers. The data involved nearly 12,000 children up to age 15.

Henretig, 64, said the study was prompted by his own experiences when his first grandchild was born three years ago.

"I found myself being very nervous on the occasions that we drove our granddaughter around and really wondered if anyone had ever looked at this before," he said.

Reasons for the unexpected findings are uncertain, but the researchers have a theory.

"Perhaps grandparents are made more nervous about the task of driving with the `precious cargo' of their grandchildren and establish more cautious driving habits" to compensate for any age-related challenges, they wrote.

The study was released online Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

Northwestern University Professor Joseph Schofer, a transportation expert not involved in the research, noted that the average age of grandparents studied was 58.

"Grandparents today are not that old" and don't fit the image of an impaired older driver, he said. "None of us should represent grandparents as kind of hobbling to the car on a walker."

Grandparents did flub one safety measure. Nearly all the kids were in car seats or seat belts, but grandparents were slightly less likely to follow recommended practices, which include rear-facing backseat car seats for infants and no front-seats. But that didn't seem to affect injury rates.

Only about 10 percent of kids in the study were driven by grandparents, but they suffered proportionately fewer injuries.

Overall, 1.05 percent of kids were injured when riding with parents, versus 0.70 percent of those riding with grandparents, or a 33 percent lower risk. The difference was even more pronounced � 50 percent � when the researchers took into account other things that could influence injury rates, including not using car seats, and older-model cars.

Kids suffered similar types of injuries regardless of who was driving, including concussions, other head injuries and broken bones.

The study does not include data on deaths, but Henretig said there were very few. It also lacked information on the types of car trips involved; for example, driving in busy city traffic might increase chances for crashes with injuries.

Schofer, the Northwestern professor, said other unstudied circumstances could have played a role. For example, grandparents could be less distracted and less frazzled than busy parents dropping their kids off at school while rushing to get to work or to do errands. Driving trips might be "quality time" for older drivers and their grandchildren, Schofer said.

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Online:

Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org

American Academy of Pediatrics car seat recommendations: http://bit.ly/rqmKhT

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Falls, eye test may give clues to Alzheimer's (AP)

PARIS � Scientists in Australia are reporting encouraging early results from a simple eye test they hope will give a noninvasive way to detect signs of Alzheimer's disease.

Although it has been tried on just a small number of people and more research is needed, the experimental test has a solid basis: Alzheimer's is known to cause changes in the eyes, not just the brain. Other scientists in the United States also are working on an eye test for detecting the disease.

A separate study found that falls might be an early warning sign of Alzheimer's. People who seemed to have healthy minds but who were discovered to have hidden plaques clogging their brains were five times more likely to fall during the study than those without these brain deposits, which are a hallmark of Alzheimer's.

Both studies were discussed Sunday at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in France.

More than 5.4 million Americans and 35 million people worldwide have Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia. Brain scans can find evidence of it a decade or more before it causes memory and thinking problems, but they're too expensive and impractical for routine use. Doctors and families need easier ways to tell who is developing the disease, so a simple eye test and warning signs like falls could be a big help.

The eye study involved photographing blood vessels in the retina, the nerve layer lining the back of the eyes. Most eye doctors have the cameras used for this, but it takes a special computer program to measure blood vessels for the experimental test doctors are using in the Alzheimer's research, said the study's leader, Shaun Frost of Australia's national science agency, CSIRO.

Reseachers compared retinal photos of 110 healthy people, 13 people with Alzheimer's and 13 others with mild cognitive impairment, or "pre-Alzheimer's," who were taking part in a larger study on aging. The widths of certain blood vessels in those with Alzheimer's were different from vessels in the others and the amount of difference matched the amount of plaque seen on brain scans.

More study is planned on larger groups to see how accurate the test might be, Frost said.

Earlier work by Dr. Lee Goldstein of Boston University showed that amyloid, the protein that makes up Alzheimer's brain plaque, can be measured in the lens of the eyes of some people with the disease, particularly Down syndrome patients who often are prone to Alzheimer's.

A company he holds stock in, Neuroptix, is testing a laser eye scanner to measure amyloid in the eyes. Goldstein praised the work by the Australian scientists.

"It's a small study" but "suggestive and encouraging," he said. "My hat's off to them for looking outside the brain for other areas where we might see other evidence of this disease."

Eye doctors often are the first to see patients with signs of Alzheimer's, which can start with vision changes, not just the memory problems it's most known for, said Dr. Ronald Petersen, a Mayo Clinic dementia expert with no role in the new studies.

Other signs could be balance and gait problems, which may show up before mental changes do. Susan Stark of Washington University in St. Louis led the first study tying falls to a risk of developing Alzheimer's disease before mental changes show up.

It involved 125 people, average age 74, who had normal cognition and were taking part in a federally funded study of aging. They kept journals on how often they fell, and had brain scans and spinal taps to look for various substances that can signal Alzheimer's disease.

In six months, 48 fell at least once. The risk of falling was nearly three times greater for each unit of increase in the sticky plaque that scans revealed in their brains.

"Falls are tricky" because they can be medication-related or due to dizziness from high blood pressure, a blood vessel problem or other diseases like Parkinson's, said Creighton Phelps, a neuroscientist at the National Institute on Aging.

Falls also can cause head injury or brain trauma that leads to cognitive problems, said Laurie Ryan, who oversees some of the institute's research grants but had no role in the study. Older people who hit their heads and suffer a small tear or bleeding in the brain might seem fine but develop symptoms a month later, she said.

The bottom line: "If you see somebody who's having falls for no particular reason," the person should be evaluated for dementia, said William Thies, the Alzheimer's Association's scientific director.

The warning signs of Alzheimer's:

_Memory loss that disrupts daily life

_Trouble planning or solving problems

_Difficulty completing tasks

_Confusion with time or place

_Trouble understanding images and spatial relationships

_New problems with speaking or writing words

_Misplacing things and inability to retrace steps

_Decreased or poor judgment

_Social withdrawal

_Changes in mood or personality

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Online:

National Institute on Aging: http://www.nia.nih.gov/Alzheimers

Alzheimer's Association: http://www.alz.org

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Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

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