The Internet can be a boon for the retired folk; Here's what we know so far!

A new study has found that people who use the Internet during their retirement years have better and boosted cognitive functions than those who don’t. Researchers from Lancaster University Management School, the Norwegian University Science and Technology and Trinity College Dublin examined the cognitive function of more than 2,000 retired people from across Europe. They found that post-retirement Internet usage is associated with substantially better results.

The study, published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, focused on a sample of 2,105 older people from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland who had been retired since 2004.

Also watch: Your smartphone may be causing havoc to your pacemaker!

A word recall test was conducted where individuals were asked to recall a list of 10 words immediately and then again five minutes later. Results found that, on average, people who used the Internet after they retired were able to recall 1.22 extra words in the recall test compared to non-Internet users.

Interacting with others online, finding out information or simple tasks like shopping online can all make life easier for retirees and boost their cognitive functions. However, it is not yet clear which specific tasks on the Internet are responsible for improving cognitive performance.

Also watch: This is how much water you need to drink to keep your heart healthy