News

HealthDay (8/23, Norton) reports investigators have discovered that “among older British adults, those who spent a lot of time watching TV were more likely to be diagnosed with dementia in coming years, yet the opposite pattern was seen with computer use.” The study team arrived at these conclusions after focusing “on over 146,000 participants aged 60 and older who were dementia-free at the outset and reported on various lifestyle habits – including how much of their daily leisure time they devoted to TV or computers,” then following them for 12 years. The findings were published online Aug. 22 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  Psychiatric News (8/23) reports the study found that “adults who spent four hours a day or more watching TV had about 20% greater risk of developing dementia than those who spent less than two hours a day watching TV,” whereas “adults who spent one hour or more on a computer daily had a 24% reduced risk of dementia compared with those who spent less than 30 minutes on a computer.” (SOURCE: APA Headlines)