Does crossing the digital divide protect late-life cognition?
In 10,098 BABRI participants, digital exclusion tracked with worse processing speed and higher MCI risk; overcoming it linked to slower decline and MCI reversion.
Source
The Digital Divide and Cognitive Disparities Among Older Adults: Community-Based Cohort Study in China
Study at a glance
- Design
- Cohort — BABRI community cohort with cross-sectional and longitudinal cognitive models
- N
- N=10098 · Community-dwelling older adults; ~48.9% classified as facing digital divide
- Population
- Older adults in the Beijing Aging Brain Rejuvenation (BABRI) study, China
- Outcome
- Multidomain cognition, MCI incidence, and MCI-to-normal reversion by ICT/digital-divide status
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Inspect source passages
Does crossing the digital divide protect late-life cognition?
These passages occur verbatim in the stored paper text. They support the points listed below; they do not verify every statement in the explanation.
48.9% (4941/10098) faced the digital divide.
Among the 10098 participants, nearly half (n=4941, 48.9%) faced the digital divide, which was associated with a worse performance in processing speed (F 10096 =10.67; P <.001; effect size r =0.42)
Overcoming the digital divide associated with MCI HRs of 0.5 and 0.43.
overcoming the digital divide was also associated with a lower risk of developing MCI (hazard ratio [HR] 0.5, 95% CI 0.34-0.74; HR 0.43, 95% CI 0.29-0.62)
What they did
Quantified ICT use (digital divide), then used ANCOVA, mixed models, and Cox models relating divide status to multidomain cognition and MCI transitions.
What they found
48.9% faced the divide; strongest cross-sectional hit was processing speed (r=0.42). Overcoming the divide associated with lower MCI HRs (~0.43–0.5) and higher reversion HRs (~6–9).
The limits
What it doesn't show
That giving internet access alone causally prevents dementia; residual confounding by SES/health remains possible.
Key terms
- Digital divide
- Unequal ability/frequency of using ICTs.
- ICT
- Information and communication technologies.
- Processing speed
- How quickly simple cognitive operations are completed.
- MCI
- Mild cognitive impairment, an intermediate cognitive state.
- BABRI
- Beijing Aging Brain Rejuvenation community cohort.
- Hazard ratio
- Relative instantaneous event rate between groups.
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Quiz yourself
About what share faced the digital divide?
Common questions
Sample size?
10,098 participants.
Divide prevalence?
48.9%.
Key domain?
Processing speed.
MCI message?
Overcoming divide → lower incidence, higher reversion.
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