“Call of Duty increases risk of Alzheimer’s disease”
An article in The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday 20th May 2015 claimed that “Millions of teenagers could be at increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other mental illnesses in later life through playing action video games, new research has warned.” In fact the study on which the article is based did not look at whether video games were linked to the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
Tim Parry, Head of Communications, Alzheimer’s Research UK:
“The risk factors for Alzheimer’s and other causes of dementia are varied and complex, but this study does not add Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto to that list. This study focussed on a specific navigation task in young adults and did not look long term at memory and thinking skills, so we cannot draw any conclusions about video games and dementia risk.”
Document type: For The Record
Published: 20 May 2015
Source: Sense About Science
