Use of the Internet as a prevention tool against cognitive decline in normal aging

Abstract

Recent demographic trends indicate that older people appear to be one of the fastest growing population groups worldwide. In the year 2000, people older than 65 years represented 12.4% of the population. This number is expected to rise to 19% by 2030, particularly in developed countries. Therefore, there is sustained effort at both national and international levels to prolong the active life of these people as long as possible. Since the present older generation at the age of 55 years is already digitally literate, the use of technologies is one of the solutions. The purpose of this study is to discuss the role of the Internet in the prevention of cognitive decline in normal aging. The author examines clinical studies that exploit the use of the Internet, including online training programs, in the prevention of cognitive decline in healthy older individuals. The findings of the clinical studies indicate that the use of the Internet, especially online cognitive training programs, may have a positive effect on the improvement of cognitive functions in healthy older adults. Nevertheless, larger sample longitudinal randomized controlled clinical trials aimed at the prevention of cognitive decline among healthy older adults are needed.

Internet use in old age predicts smaller cognitive decline only in men

“…Latent change score modelling taking into account baseline cognitive level, chronic diseases, age, and central contributions to cognitive reserve through education, profession, and leisure engagement showed that more frequent Internet use in the first wave of data collection predicted a smaller subsequent augmentation in TMT accomplishment time (i.e., a smaller subsequent cognitive decline). In general, this result confirms prior evidence suggesting that frequent Internet use may help to reduce cognitive decline in old age 26,27 and that frequent computer use in general is related to better cognitive functioning in old age 28,29 . Importantly, testing for potential gender differences in the present study, we found differential patterns between women and men with regard to the relationship between more frequent Internet use and smaller subsequent cognitive decline.…”

“…For instance, disentangling the reciprocal longitudinal relationships between Internet use and cognitive functioning over a 2-year period using a cross-lagged panel analysis, Kamin and Lang 25 found that Internet use had a greater impact on cognitive functioning than vice versa. Further empirical evidence suggests that frequent Internet use may help to reduce cognitive decline in older adults 26,27 . This evidence dovetails with similar findings showing that frequent computer use in general is related to better cognitive functioning in old age 28,29 .…”

Maintaining cognitive function with internet use: a two-country, six-year longitudinal study

“…Also, more specific cognitive outcomes could be examined, such as information processing speed, cognitive flexibility, and magnetic resonance imaging (Slegers et al, 2009;Webster et al, 2017), and more pertinent confounders could be added, such as vision impairment and personality (Gell et al, 2015;Berner et al, 2017). If replicated, our findings may warrant well-designed intervention studies (Klimova, 2016;Yates et al, 2016). It has been recommended that cognition-focused interventions should implement newly acquired skills and strategies in the everyday context (Kurz et al, 2011).…”

Multidomain Lifestyle Intervention Strategies for the Delay of Cognitive Impairment in Healthy Aging

“…The aging process is associated with age-related diseases, the most common of which is dementia [ 7 ]. Dementia is a clinical syndrome, which is associated with cognitive decline, involving loss of memory and reasoning difficulties.…”