Old men who use computers less likely to get dementia
Men who use computers as they enter their winter years have a better chance of avoiding dementia than those who don't, according to a new Australian study.
Older Men Who Use Computers Have Lower Risk of Dementia, compiled by researchers at the University of Western Australia's Centre for Health and Ageing, is one output of the the Health In Men Study (HIMS) study that has seen “5506 community-dwelling men aged 69 to 87 years followed for up to 8.5 years.”
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.
