In a world increasingly consumed by social media, much has been made of the amount of time younger generations spend online every day — and the harms that habit can bring.
But now a new study of older adults suggests that regular internet use may actually be a boon for older Americans, staving off the long-term risk for dementia.
“We studied the association between internet usage and the risk of dementia in the long term among dementia-free adults aged 50 and older,” explained study author Gawon Cho.
“We found that regular users experienced approximately half the risk of dementia than non-regular users,” said Cho, a doctoral student in the department of social and behavioral sciences at New York University’s School of Global Public Health, in New York City.
“Surprised by the magnitude of the risk difference” her team observed, Cho acknowledged that it’s not entirely clear whether dementia-free patients are simply more likely to surf the web in the first place, or whether surfing the web can actually help keep dementia risk at bay.
“We cannot tell which is the chicken and which is the egg at this time,” Cho admitted.
Still, she said, the findings do indicate that when it comes to maintaining a healthy brain “internet usage in old age matters.”
To examine how internet use might impact dementia risk, the study team focused on more than 18,000 American adults. All were between the ages of 50 and 65 when the study was launched in 2002.
After initially undergoing mental health assessments, all participants were subsequently interviewed every two years, to keep tally of internet usage habits.