Daily HealthBeat Tip

Hands-free

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Keeping your mind on the road seems to require keeping it off the cell phone. Researchers suspect even hands-free phones can be distracting.

Jonathan Levy and his colleagues did a multitasking study, putting students at the University of California, San Diego into a driving simulator.

The students braked when a simulated car ahead braked. They had distractions, including a beeping sound, to sort of simulate a cell phone.

Students were slower to brake when they also had to pay attention to the sound.

Levy's conclusion:

"Performing another task can interfere with timely stepping on the brakes. So it might be prudent to avoid doing other things in the car when you're driving, because you just never know when you might just step on the brakes." (11 seconds)

Levy's study in the journal Psychological Science was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: May 26, 2006

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