Lifestyle and demographic characteristics linked to driving simple reaction time

Asadamraji, Morteza; Delkhak, Maryam; Khodaverdi, Mohammaderza; Nadimi, Navid · 2026 · Crossref

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-34841-3

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Summary

This study investigates the direct and indirect effects of lifestyle behaviors and demographic characteristics on simple reaction time (SRT), a fundamental measure of cognitive-motor processing speed relevant to driving safety. While individual factors like age and health are known to influence reaction times, there is a lack of unified frameworks quantifying how daily routines and demographic traits simultaneously modulate psychomotor speed. The research aims to fill this gap by testing a mediation model where lifestyle behaviors influence SRT through physical and mental health, providing cross-cultural empirical evidence from a non-Western urban population. The researchers recruited 348 drivers in Tehran, Iran, who completed a structured online questionnaire and an SRT task. The questionnaire assessed five latent constructs: physical health, mental health, physical exercise, substance avoidance, and accident prevention, alongside demographic variables such as age, gender, and education. SRT was measured using a browser-based visual test where participants responded to a stimulus as quickly as possible; the median of valid trials served as the final score. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to explore relationships among latent and observed variables, ensuring robustness against non-normal data distributions and model complexity. Results indicated that physical health had the strongest direct negative effect on SRT, meaning healthier individuals exhibited quicker responses. Age showed the most substantial positive effect, with older participants demonstrating slower reaction times. Higher education levels were linked to faster responses, while female gender was associated with longer reaction times. The analysis confirmed that lifestyle factors such as physical activity and substance avoidance influence SRT, often mediated by physical and mental health states. The study also noted that driving experience and sleep duration were excluded from the final model due to low statistical significance. The SRT distribution was positively skewed, with a mean of 475.63 ms. The findings highlight the multifactorial nature of SRT, demonstrating that basic cognitive-motor speed is shaped by a complex interplay of health, demographics, and lifestyle. These results provide evidence to inform hypotheses for future driving-specific research and public-health interventions. However, the authors caution that because the study used an online SRT task rather than a driving simulator or on-road assessment, direct inferences regarding on-road driving performance and traffic safety cannot be claimed. The study contributes to the field by offering a cohesive model for understanding how daily behaviors modulate reaction times in a large metropolitan sample.

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Topics

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• cognitive capacity variation
• sex gender

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• Empirical Findings: behavioral performance data, observational prevalence