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REGULAR INTERNET USE can help stave off dementia, according to a new study in The Journals of Gerontology.
Researchers took eight years to study 6,442 people in the UK aged between 50 and 89, and tested their ability to memorise a 10-word-list.
The results found that those who used the internet and sent emails regularly performed better in the memory test when it was administered on four subsequent occasions.
This led the researchers, led by Brazilian scientist Dr Andre Junqueira Xavier, to the following conclusion:
Digital literacy – the ability to engage, plan, and execute digital actions such as web browsing and exchanging e-mails – can improve memory.
Digital literacy increases brain and cognitive reserve or leads to the employment of more efficient cognitive networks to delay cognitive decline.
All of which is to say:
Digital literacy may also reduce the incidence of dementia.
The study also found that cognitive decline was mitigated by higher wealth and education, and that elderly people with no digital literacy, functional impairment, diabetes, or depressive symptoms, experienced exacerbated cognitive decline.
In Ireland, recent figures from the CSO showed that in the 60-74 age group, regular internet use had almost doubled in the last five years, from 24% in 2008 to 48% in 2013.
Reacting to the study, Conor Breen, Policy Officer at the Centre for Ageing Research and Development in Ireland (CARDI), told TheJournal.ie while there has been a vast improvement in the number of older people using the internet, more must be done.
This potential reduction in cognitive decline is another benefit to getting online and yet half the older population are not using the internet regularly while only one in 10 over 65s use a smartphone.
Successive governments have done well in promoting the idea of digital inclusion, but more could be done for older people, particularly those who haven’t been using the internet in their working lives.
A dedicated strategy to train older people in use the internet, tablets and smartphones…would work well.
Scroll down to read the study in full, or read it over at The Journals of Gerontology: Series A.
http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2014/08/j-gerontol-a-biol-sci-med-sci-2014-xavier-1117-21.pdf
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You could also just read a book, a newspaper, fill out a cross-word maybe. Have a game of soduko, a chat with friends, write a letter. Basically stay active and exercise your brain.
A new thing like computers or the internet is better because it’s a challenge if you’re from that generation.
Agree with both, a guy I know turned 90 recently & can’t wait to play with his new Ipad in the morning, loves to chat about his memories, particularly what it was like here during the war, I guess a lot of older folk don’t get to chat as much as they would like, or indeed should.
I can do all of this, and listen to music, on my Ipad and im 65
Im 65 and i don’t see it as a challenge. Most people of my age have been using computers and accessing the internet since they were available.most of us silver surfers are as hi tech savvy as anybody
Yes Stephen, I don’t think it’s meant to be patronising but it is, a bit. I know a lot of people much younger than me who are much more digitally challenged than myself
Yea you right I’m seventy and have been using gadgets since the commodore 64 back in the day, just upgraded to windows 8 and samsung 5,not to mention chromecast,but while technology is wonderfull it is still hard to beat a 30/40 cycle on a warm sunny day on our country’s southwest coastline.
I agree, age isn’t the only factor when it comes to computer literacy. My dad who is almost sixty is a software developer, but my sister who’s thirty has trouble with computers. I do know some people in their sixties who are hopeless with technology because they never had the opportunity to learn about computers until now and it’s a lot to take in at once.
I lived in goleen fir part of last winter and i know its hard to get around on a bike as the roads are so bad
“..it’s a challenge if you’re from that generation.” Listen here I am exactly 50 years old I’ve worked for Digital, Compaq, and HP and still do, it’s not really much of a challenge considering it was my generation that invented this stuff.
Am well over 50,not far off 70 in fact. What might drive me to dementia might be the utter offensive inanity of many of the comments on Journal!!!
True, John. At the rate I use the internet, I’m safe from Alzheimer’s, touch wood!
Many of the over 50′s currently online know that the challenge of getting online is not what it used to be. Them were the days when you really had to earn your 5mins a day at 14kbs having worked out the baud and the parity without the help of even altavista – never mind google.
Aye that was before pictures ruined the internet and everything was left to the imagination. Now where did I leave my IPhone I need my slippertraker app to find my slippers.
I miss the sound the modem would make when it connected
True John. At the rate I use the Internet im safe touching wood
I’m 54 and just completed a MTA in networking fundamentals and now am Microsoft qualified!
Must show the Hubby this. He says I have an unhealthy obsession with my smart phone. Ha ha.
Sure it keeps the oul brain working.
Oh the merit of watching porn, gambling on line, murder games etc, etc on the internet ! No need or time to worry about dementia ❗️you can always buy some online drugs, to keep you going.
You really showed us..
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