INTERNET TO THE RESCUE
STUDY FINDS SURFING THE WEB IN RETIREMENT SLOWS COGNITIVE DECLINE
The internet may good for our brains after all, according to a new study that says surfing through one’s retirement years can have a big impact on cognitive function.
The research, published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, analyzed the cognitive abilities of 2,105 retired Europeans and found that those who used the internet regularly after retirement performed better on tests than those who ditched the technology at the same time as their day job.
Study participants — a group of older individuals from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland who all retired in 2004 — were subjected to a series of cognitive tests between 2013 and 2015, including one that required them to recall a list of 10 words immediately after hearing them, then again 10 minutes later. On average, participants who used the internet after they retired were able to recall 1.22 more words than non-internet users. This group was also more likely to be male, younger, more educated and more recently retired.
“Our results reveal that using the internet, post-retirement, leads to a marked reduction in the rate of cognitive decline,” said Vincent O’sullivan, a co-author from Lancaster University Management School in England. “Interestingly, this protective effect was found to be most significant among women, with female retirees who regularly surfed the internet able to recall 2.37 more words compared to women who didn’t go online. The results were also consistent among men, with retired internet users able to recall 0.94 more words than men with similar characteristics who didn’t use the internet.
“We also found that retirees who used computers in their jobs before retirement were more likely to keep using computers once they retired and hence had better cognitive function.”
There was also a vast difference in internet use across different countries, with just 12 per cent of retirees surfing the web in Italy compared to over 60 per cent in Denmark. “Research has shown that retirement from the workforce is a critical period for cognitive function, which declines with age and can be a predictor for a range of key health outcomes among older people,” said Likun Mao, co-author of the study at Trinity College Dublin.
“Although there is a widespread belief that computer usage improves older people’s cognitive function — such as memory, attention, spatial abilities and problem solving — there has been mixed evidence from previous studies. We were able to discern that pre-retirement computer usage does not directly influence post-retirement cognitive decline and we ensured our results referred only to post-retirement internet usage.”
The team accounted for a multitude of other factors that might influence their findings and concluded there is something specific about the online experience that helps keep older brains engaged long after they leave the workplace.
“Within our study we estimated statistical models which controlled for individuals’ ages, education levels, occupational skills and years since retirement, so we are confident that our results are robust and relate only to the use of the internet, post retirement,” said Colin Green, a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
“This sets it apart from other studies and raises the interesting question of what it is about internet use exactly, that drives this positive effect on cognitive function. Interacting with others online, finding out information in order to attend social activities or simple tasks like shopping online can all make life easier for retirees, but we are yet to understand which, if any, of these tasks go as far as improving cognitive performance.”