Since the birth of computers, video games, and the internet, we’ve heard endlessly about how our brains are going to rot. A group of scientists has gotten down to work to carry out the test, studying the cognitive changes from the use of certain technologies. Curiously, they have discovered just the opposite, and that is that regular internet use appears to decrease the chances of developing dementia in elderly.
This is what they commented on in the August publication of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (AGS). Here, the authors of the article from the New York School of Public Health get down to work to discover the effect of the Internet on the elderly and its relationship with dementia. For his part, the lack of information in this field was one of the main motivations to carry out the study.
In order to do so, the group of researchers used data from the Health and Retirement Studyfrom the University of Michigan, which has studied an estimated 20,000 elderly Americans. Thus, a population of adults without dementia was taken, aged between 50 and 65 years.
The longitudinal survey carried out by the University of Michigan was completed over a period of 17 years, starting in 2002 and ending in 2018. In addition, it was repeated every two years, in order to keep track of the population. Researchers from the Health and Retirement Study asked a group of 20,000 elderly Americans if they used the internet on a regular basis. If the answer is affirmative, the time of use was inquired.
According to his research, 65% of the population claimed to use the internet regularly and 21% commented on a change in their habits during the participation period. Unfortunately, another percentage of the elderly died or developed dementia during the survey period.
The research results show a low probability of developing dementia for those elderly who use the Internet on a regular basis. Specifically, only 1.54% of active users are at risk of having the disease in the future. In contrast, we have 10.54% of the population at risk among those who do not use digital platforms.
On the other hand, by measuring the time it took the participants to develop dementia, it was estimated that the elderly who used the Internet constantly were half as likely to have the disease. This, of course, compared to the group of people who did not.
Although the results seem to infer that Internet use decreases the risk of cognitive decline, there is also a fine print. As detailed by the AGS, using this technology too much also seems to be related to the development of dementia in the elderly. The calculations show that the risk is greater for those who navigated for more than two hours a day.
However, It still remains to delve into this study. According to Claire Sexton, from the Alzheimer’s Association, it is necessary to investigate the reasons why the Internet can become a determinant when it comes to developing dementia (or not) in the elderly.