Older people who embrace digital technology such as the internet may have better memory recall as a result, a new study suggests.

Researchers followed the progress of almost 6,500 people in the UK who were aged between 50 and 89 and found a link between digital literacy and a reduction in cognitive decline.

Digital literacy refers to a person's ability to plan and carry out digital actions such as sending emails and surfing the internet.

The participants underwent a memory test that involved delayed recall.

The study found that those who were financially better off, had better education levels and were more digitally literate performed better in the test. Those with depressive symptoms, heart disease, diabetes or no digital literacy showed some level of cognitive decline.

The researchers suggested that ‘digital literacy increases brain and cognitive reserve or leads to the employment of more efficient cognitive networks to delay cognitive decline'.

They added that countries that place a big emphasis on digital literacy ‘may expect lower incidence rates for dementia over the coming decades'.

Details of these findings are published in The Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Medical Sciences.

For more information on dementia, see our Alzheimer's Clinic here