Watching the box can increase your chance of the illness, but computer use can help protect against it
Watching TV increases your risk of dementia – but using a computer can help protect against it, a study suggests.
Researchers analysed 12 years of data on 150,000 people in the UK aged 60 or over.
Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, Prof. David Raichlen from the University of Southern California said: ‘Compared with less than two hours, four hours of TV was associated with a 20 percent increased risk of dementia.
‘Compared with no computer use, one hour was associated with a 25 percent decrease.’
Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the authors of the study stated: ‘Sedentary behaviour, like watching television or using a computer, take up a large portion of adult leisure time and are linked to increased risk of chronic disease and mortality.
‘We investigated whether sedentary behaviour is associated with all-cause dementia regardless of physical activity.
‘Our results help clarify associations of sedentary behaviour with brain health and suggest that it is not time spent sitting per se but the type of context that is associated with dementia risk.
‘Reducing cognitively passive TV watching and increasing more cognitively active sedentary behaviour are promising targets for reducing risk of neurodegenerative disease.
- Daily mail