| Title: | Underlying brain and genetic mechanisms linking historic phone use patterns, visual decline, and dementia risk in middle-aged and older adults |
| Journal: | Alzheimer's & Dementia Diagnosis Assessment & Disease Monitoring |
| Published: | 22 Jul 2025 |
| Pubmed: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40703341/ |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1002/dad2.70117 |
| URL: | https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/dad2.70117 |
Publication 16126
WARNING: the interactive features of this website use CSS3, which your browser does not support. To use the full features of this website, please update your browser.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate associations between historic phone use, visual decline, and risk of dementia, as well as underlying biological mechanisms.</p>
METHODS: A total of 494,359 participants from UK Biobank were included in the prospective study. Historic phone use, visual acuity, brain imaging, and leukocyte telomere lengths (LTLs) were assessed. Incident dementia was tracked via hospital episode records and mortality data.</p>
RESULTS: Over a median follow-up of 12.2 years, participants with better visual acuity were associated with longer use of mobile phone. Longer historic phone use was associated with a 31% lower risk of dementia. Both hippocampal gray matter volumes and LTLs were associated with historic phone use length and significantly mediated the relationship between historic phone use and dementia. Mediation still exists in participants with visual decline.</p>
CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest mobile phone use may serve as a modifiable factor to prevent dementia, even in older adults with visual decline.</p>
Highlights: A strong inverse association was observed between longer mobile phone use and lower dementia incidence, potentially mediated by changes in hippocampal gray matter volume and LTL.Mobile phone use may benefit individuals with age-related visual decline by reducing dementia risk, given the well-established link between vision impairment and increased dementia risk.Middle-aged and older adults should be encouraged to use mobile phones as a means to enhance social connectivity.</p>
14 Authors
- Xiayin Zhang
- Yuling Xu
- Shan Wang
- Ishith Seth
- Yu Huang
- Xueli Zhang
- Zijing Du
- Dongli Zhuang
- Shunming Liu
- Yijun Hu
- Xianwen Shang
- Mingguang He
- Zhuoting Zhu
- Honghua Yu
1 Application
| Application ID | Title |
|---|---|
| 86091 | Regulators of the association between ocular disorders and systemic diseases. |
Enabling scientific discoveries that improve human health