Study: Daily internet use may lower dementia risk in older adults

NEW JERSEY: A recent study focusing on older adults has discovered a striking connection between regular internet use and a reduced risk of dementia among this demographic.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, found that older individuals who utilised the internet regularly were approximately half as likely to develop dementia compared to their peers who did not engage in regular online activities.

The study found that this connection was still significant, even when considering factors like education, ethnicity, gender, age, and early signs of thinking problems in the participants.

The research titled Internet Usage and the Prospective Risk of Dementia: A Population-Based Cohort Study, led by Gawon Cho, Rebecca A. Betensky, and Virginia W. Chang, revealed that those who spent between 6 minutes and 2 hours per day on the internet had the lowest risk of dementia.

However, the findings challenge common perceptions about internet usage, which often center around concerns about excessive screen time, particularly among children and adolescents. In reality, the internet serves as a crucial pillar of the modern economy and entertainment industry, providing easy access to engaging content.

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Furthermore, the study showed that using the internet can make older people better at protecting their thinking abilities as they age, reducing the chances of getting dementia and keeping their brains healthy.

Meanwhile, previous studies have also shown that internet users tend to exhibit better cognitive performance, verbal reasoning, and memory compared to non-users. However, these studies typically lacked long-term tracking or followed participants for only brief periods, making it unclear whether internet use actively contributes to maintaining cognitive function or whether individuals with already superior cognitive abilities are more likely to use the internet.

Data collection

To gather the data, the researchers analysed information from the Health and Retirement Study, an ongoing longitudinal survey of a nationally representative sample of US adults aged 50 and over. The study included 18,154 participants, all born before 1966, and aged between 50 and 65 at the start of the analysis period. The participants were followed for a median period of 8 years, with some individuals being monitored for up to 17 years. Data collection occurred primarily between 2002 and 2018.

The study involved regular interviews with participants regarding their internet usage, as well as assessments of dementia conducted every two years via telephone interviews. Researchers calculated the age at which participants developed dementia and included various demographic factors in their analysis.

Study findings

The study found that about 65 per cent of the people used the internet regularly, while 35 per cent didn’t. Interestingly, 21 per cent changed how often they used the internet during the study, and 53 per cent kept using it the same way. The rest, which is 26 per cent, either left the study, passed away, or got dementia. Out of all the participants, 5 per cent developed dementia during the study, and 8 per cent had other events happen that made them unable to be part of the analysis anymore.

Participants who used the internet regularly when the study started had a much lower chance of getting dementia, only 1.54 per cent compared to 10.45 per cent for those who didn’t use it often. When looking at the time until dementia started, regular internet users had only 57 per cent of the risk faced by non-regular users.

However, when narrowing the analysis to adults without initial signs of cognitive decline, the risk of dementia for regular internet users was 62 per cent lower than that for non-regular users.

In conclusion, the study found that regular internet use was linked to a lower risk of dementia in older adults, even after considering various factors. However, it’s important to note some study limitations, including the possibility that the dementia assessment used may not perfectly match clinical diagnoses. The study also focused on individuals without dementia at the start, possibly missing those who developed dementia early.