ArticleJournal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD2021
Passively-Measured Routine Home Computer Activity and Application Use Can Detect Mild Cognitive Impairment and Correlate with Important Cognitive Functions in Older Adulthood.
Article in Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Individual sedentary activities and cognitive function in middle-aged and older adults: A systematic review.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2026Pooled it
- Neuropsychological Diagnostic Tools in Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Aging and disease · 2025Pooled it
- A meta-analysis of technology use and cognitive aging.Nature human behaviour · 2025Pooled it
- Digital Endpoints for Assessing Instrumental Activities of Daily Living in Mild Cognitive Impairment: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Pooled it
- Clinical telemonitoring and telerehabilitation of cognition in rare neurological diseases: a scoping review.Journal of neurology · 2026Article
- Digital Phenotyping via Passive Network Traffic Monitoring: Prospective Observational Study in University Students.JMIR formative research · 2026Observational
- Remote Digital Technologies for the Early Detection and Monitoring of Cognitive Decline in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: Insights From Studies of Neurodegenerative Diseases.Journal of diabetes science and technology · 2024Review
- Examining Associations Between Smartphone Use and Clinical Severity in Frontotemporal Dementia: Proof-of-Concept Study.JMIR aging · 2024Article
- Shifting From Active to Passive Monitoring of Alzheimer Disease: The State of the Research.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2024Review
- Older Adults and New Technology: Mapping Review of the Factors Associated With Older Adults' Intention to Adopt Digital Technologies.JMIR aging · 2023Review
- Online monitoring of financial capacity in older adults: Feasibility and initial findings.Alzheimer's & dementia (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2022Article
- From screens to cognition: A scoping review of the impact of screen time on cognitive function in midlife and older adults.Digital healthReview
- The relationship between cognitive screeners and everyday functioning in amyloid-positive participants from the Amsterdam Dementia Cohort.Alzheimer's & dementia (Amsterdam, Netherlands)Article
- Cognitive dispersion is related to subtle objective daily functioning changes in older adults with and without cognitive impairment.Alzheimer's & dementia (Amsterdam, Netherlands)Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundComputer use is a cognitively complex instrumental activity of daily living (IADL) that has been linked to cognitive functioning in older adulthood, yet little work has explored its capacity to detect incident mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
objectiveTo examine whether routine home computer use (general computer use as well as use of specific applications) could effectively discriminate between older adults with and without MCI, as well as explore associations between use of common computer applications and cognitive domains known to be important for IADL performance.
methodsA total of 60 community-dwelling older adults (39 cognitively healthy, 21 with MCI) completed a neuropsychological evaluation at study baseline and subsequently had their routine home computer use behaviors passively recorded for three months.
resultsCompared to those with MCI, cognitively healthy participants spent more time using the computer, had a greater number of computer sessions, and had an earlier mean time of first daily computer session. They also spent more time using email and word processing applications, and used email, search, and word processing applications on a greater number of days. Better performance in several cognitive domains, but in particular memory and language, was associated with greater frequency of browser, word processing, search, and game application use.
conclusionComputer and application use are useful in identifying older adults with MCI. Longitudinal studies are needed to determine whether decreases in overall computer use and specific computer application use are predictors of incident cognitive decline.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.