New research published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society says that if older adults regularly used the internet could ward off their risk of developing dementia.¹ The study also identified that use of the internet up to 2 hours was beneficial. Use beyond this time limit was associated with increased risk of dementia.

A total of 18,154 adults, who did not have dementia, were included in the final analysis. The study objectives were to estimate the risk of dementia with regular risk of the internet over a period of 17.1 years with a median of 7.9 years using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), which is an ongoing survey of adults aged ≥50 years in the United States.

Nearly 5% of the participants were diagnosed with dementia by the end of the study. Results showed that participants who were regular users of the internet reduced their risk of dementia by almost 50% compared to those who did not use the internet regularly with cause-specific hazard ratio of 0.57. No differences were observed between the two groups with regard to education status, race-ethnicity, sex, and generation. “Additional periods of regular usage were associated with significantly reduced dementia risk (CHR 0.80)”. Those who used the internet for 0.1-2 hours were at the lowest risk, while those who remained online for more than 2 hours or did not use the internet at all were at the highest risk of dementia suggesting a U-shaped association.

Regular use of the internet by older adults delayed cognitive impairment as shown in this study. However, overuse of the internet offset this beneficial effect possibly due to a sedentary and unhealthy lifestyle. Nevertheless, older adults must be encouraged to use the internet for their positive effect on cognition and social interaction.

Reference

1. Cho G, et al. Internet usage and the prospective risk of dementia: A population-based cohort study. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2023 May 3. doi: 10.1111/jgs.18394.