Senior Tech: Combating Dementia with Digital Skills
- A comprehensive meta-analysis with over 411,000 seniors proves: regular technology use reduces teh risk of dementia by 58 percent and sustainably promotes cognitive health in old age.
- A pioneering study clears up the myth of "digital dementia": smartphones, computers and the Internet protect older people from losing memory.
- the comprehensive meta-analysis, published in the renowned specialist journal Nature Human Behavior, turns decades of concern for harmful screen time on its head.
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A comprehensive meta-analysis with over 411,000 seniors proves: regular technology use reduces teh risk of dementia by 58 percent and sustainably promotes cognitive health in old age.
A pioneering study clears up the myth of “digital dementia”: smartphones, computers and the Internet protect older people from losing memory. The analysis of over 411,000 seniors even shows the opposite-regular technology usage considerably strengthens the brain.
the comprehensive meta-analysis, published in the renowned specialist journal Nature Human Behavior, turns decades of concern for harmful screen time on its head. seniors who regularly used digital technologies performed better in cognitive tests and rarely suffered from dementia than their peers. This protective effect showed across 57 separate studies – even after taking education, income and physical health into account.
Myth “digital dementia” finally refuted
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For years there was fear that technology dependence leads to intellectual decay. But the new major study draws a completely different picture: digital technologies reduced the risk of cognitive impairments by an impressive 58 percent.
“Far from causing a ‘digital dementia’, technology usage is consistently connected with better brain health,” explains Jared Benge, neuropsychologist at the UT Health Austin’s Comprehensive Memory Center.Almost 90 percent of the studies analyzed took a protective cognitive effect through technology use.
Why is that? Mental stimulation when navigating through the digital world works like effective brain training.Learning new devices and programs is a positive mental challenge that keeps the brain fit.
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Everyday apps instead of brain games: the “technology reserve”
The advantages are not caused by special brain training apps, but through everyday technology use. Researchers speak of a new “technology reserve”-similar to the cognitive reserve,building resistance to aging processes in education and lifelong learning.
“These devices represent complex new challenges,” explains Michael scullin, cognitive researcher at Baylor University. “If you do not give up and go through frustration, you deal with the same challenges that are demonstrably cognitively conducive to.”
Technology has a triple benefit: It offers constant mental stimulation, enables social connections via email and video calls and acts as a “digital scaffolding” with memory apps, GPS navigation and online banking. This support helps seniors to preserve their independence.
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