Older men who use computers have lower risk of dementia.
PLoS One. 2012;7(8):e44239. Epub 2012 Aug 28.
Almeida OP, Yeap BB, Alfonso H, Hankey GJ, Flicker L, Norman PE.
OBJECTIVE:
To determine if older men who use computers have lower risk of developing dementia.METHODS:
Cohort study of 5506 community-dwelling men aged 69 to 87 years followed for up to 8.5 years. Use of computers measured as daily, weekly, less than weekly and never. Participants also reported their use of email, internet, word processors, games or other computer activities. The primary outcome was the incidence of ICD-10 diagnosis of dementia as recorded by the Western Australian Data Linkage System.RESULTS:
1857/5506 (33.7%) men reported using computers and 347 (6.3%) received a diagnosis of dementia during an average follow up of 6.0 years (range: 6 months to 8.5 years). The hazard ratio (HR) of dementia was lower among computer users than non-users (HR = 0.62, 95%CI = 0.47-0.81, after adjustment for age, educational attainment, size of social network, and presence of depression or of significant clinical morbidity). The HR of dementia appeared to decrease with increasing frequency of computer use: 0.68 (95%CI = 0.41-1.13), 0.61 (95%CI = 0.39-0.94) and 0.59 (95%CI = 0.40-0.87) for less than weekly, at least weekly and daily. The HR of dementia was 0.66 (95%CI = 0.50-0.86) after the analysis was further adjusted for baseline cognitive function, as measured by the Mini-Mental State Examination.CONCLUSION:
Older men who use computers have lower risk of receiving a diagnosis of dementia up to 8.5 years later. Randomised trials are required to determine if the observed associations are causal.PMID: 22937167
The brain is a use-it or lose-it system. Past the age of 50, the brain undergoes improvement in metabolic efficacy by killing off 30 million cells a day. The brain cells less likely to die are the ones most active metabolically – i.e. those that are being used. If not slowed down by life-long learning, optimized nutrition and other interventions, then by the time most people are in their 80s, half have dementia.
These older men are capable of using computers. This implies they have a higher level of education than the usual person. Studies have repeatedly shown that the more education a person has the more protected he or she is against dementia. This study reflects that finding.