New research shows that watching more than 4 hours of television daily increases the risk of cognitive impairment and can be linked to dementia, underlining an important public health concern.
Study: TV monitoring and cognitive results in adults and elderly adults: a systematic review and dose-response of observational studies. Credit Picture: Proxima Studio/Shutterstock.com
A recent systematic review and meta-analysis published in PLOS ONE He claims that prolonged television watching can affect cognitive functions in adults and elderly adults.
Background
Progresses in medical science have expanded human life, but this has also led to an increase in age -related disabilities and disorders. Dementia is such an age -related condition, characterized by reduced cognitive function and relative functional impairment.
At the global level, dementia is the seventh leading cause of death and an important rate in disability in elderly adults. The number of people living dementia is expected to increase from 55 million in 2019 to 139 million in 2050.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia. It is characterized by progressive reductions in episodic memory and executive functions, which often lead to memory loss and spatial disorientation. While some treatments can slow the progression of the disease, there is no treatment for this condition at this time. As a result, the identification factors that affect the onset of Alzheimer’s and developing risk reduction interventions are the most effective approaches to tackling global dementia.
Watching television is one of the most common daily recreation activities between adults and older adults. The time dedicated to watching TV is also an indicator of sedentary behavior. Existing evidence suggests that prolonged television is linked to an increased risk of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Studies investigating the impact of watching television on knowledge have reported both positive and negative effects. These deviations may be partly due to the differences in design design and methodological aspects.
Given these inconsistent findings, current systematic review and meta-analysis were designed to understand in detail if there is a relationship between television monitoring and cognitive functions in adults and elderly adults.
The systematic review included 35 studies with 1,292,052 participants, of which 28 studies were further transferred.
Basic findings
The dose-response meta-analysis of selected studies revealed that longer television monitoring duration are linked to a significantly higher risk of cognitive impairment in adults and elderly adults. The risk was more intense for more than four hours a day.
Specifically, post-analysis revealed that watching television on average six hours a day is associated with a significantly lower cognitive score.
The risk of bias analysis or quality analysis of selected studies has shown that the meta-analysis of the dose-response of the risk of cognitive impairment has a moderate level of certainty, while the dose-re-re-re-response of cognitive score has a low level of certainty.
Meaning
This systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis reveal that watching television for more than four hours a day can significantly increase the risk of cognitive impairment and that watching television for more than six hours a day can significantly reduce cognitive scores.
Specifically, the conventional meta-analysis findings were mixed. While the dose-response results were significant, the overall conventional meta-analysis for cognitive impairment was zero. However, a study involved showed that the longer duration of television is linked to a significantly higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease. The authors warn that this finding requires further validation.
Existing elements associate more television monitoring with reduced brain volume in various areas of the brain associated with language, memory and communication. The document notes that these findings are indicative and not decisive and can insist even after recording factors in lifestyle such as physical activity. These areas of the brain are usually affected by dementia. Residual confusion, however, cannot be ruled out.
Prolonged television monitoring increases sedentary behavior, a well -known risk factor for cognitive impairment. In addition, prolonged television watching has been linked to increased risk of obesity and diabetes, as well as bad psychosocial effects, such as loneliness, depression and low satisfaction of life. The authors indicate that these indirect effects can contribute collectively to the risk of dementia.
Current findings create a major public health problem, as the literature says adults spend more than seven hours a day watching television. With the increasing global dominance of dementia, these findings emphasize the need to raise public awareness of the cognitive disadvantages of television watching for prolonged periods and encouraging people to seek alternative recreation activities that will improve their cognitive performance.
This systematic review and meta-analysis included only observation studies. Therefore, the causality of observed correlations could not be determined. In addition, some of the findings analyzed have a low or very low level of certainty. These findings must be carefully interpreted.
Studies included in meta-analysis concerned only adults and elderly adults, which limits the generalization of findings to younger populations. Further investigations are needed to establish the causal correlation between television monitoring and the risk of cognitive impairment, as well as the possible effect of confusing factors on this Union.
