Dear Doctors: Is there any connection with dementia patients and television? I am part of a group at my church that visits people living in memory care, and I noticed the television is always on. Now my mother is in the early stages of dementia, and her television is always on.
Dear Reader: Concerns about the possible ill effects of television arrived almost in tandem with the introduction of this new medium. People warned of eye strain from sitting too close to the screen. Some worried about radiation exposure from the low levels of X-rays emitted by the earliest color TVs. And when it became clear that watching TV led to more hours of inactivity, as well as social isolation, this, too, caused alarm.
In the eight decades since TVs first hit the market, TV has become part of daily life. Data show Americans watch more than four hours of TV a day on average. For adults 65 and older, the amount is higher. Concerns about inactivity and social isolation are well-founded. Researchers are discovering a correlation between the amount of time spent watching TV and a higher risk of dementia.
A study published in 2023 that analyzed health data from 415,000 adults in Great Britain quantified that risk. The researchers compared people who watched less than one hour of TV per day to those who viewed four or more hours. The higher TV use group had a 28% higher risk of dementia. They also had a 35% higher risk of depression and a 15% higher risk of Parkinson’s disease. It’s interesting, though, that 30 to 60 minutes a day using a computer decreased dementia risk. Replacing computer time with a structured exercise program had even more protective effects.
Watching television is both sedentary and passive. Long periods of inactivity put people at higher risk of developing high blood pressure, poor blood lipid profiles, diabetes, systemic low-grade inflammation, disrupted sleep and cardiovascular disease. These have all been shown to be risk factors in dementia. Time spent watching TV can also have an emotional cost when it takes the place of more beneficial activities. A decrease in social interaction can add to depression, anxiety and loneliness. And unlike reading, conversing, playing games or doing tasks, TV doesn’t call on memory, problem-solving or analytical skills. These are additional risk factors for dementia.
When it comes to the memory care housing you visit as a volunteer, however, it is unlikely that television worsens the residents’ cognitive issues. These residents were already advanced enough in their conditions to require specialized care. In these situations, the sound and visuals of television have been found to help provide a familiar and reassuring sense of home to people living in unfamiliar environments and among strangers.
For the rest of us, though, the abundance of research on the adverse effects of too much TV can serve as a warning. We can all benefit from a self-check of how much TV we watch in a day or a week, and swap some of those hours for physical, mental and social activity in the real world.
(Send your questions to [email protected], or write: Ask the Doctors, c/o UCLA Health Sciences Media Relations, 10960 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1955, Los Angeles, CA, 90024. Owing to the volume of mail, personal replies cannot be provided.)
