Does Reading a Chapter a Day Bring Logevity?

Interesting study cohort from the Health and Retirement Study and collected by the University of Michigan's Institute of Social Research found that reading does lead to a longer life.

The study also found that the types of reading materials was important, and that the greatest impact on longevity was found with reading books over other reading materials such as magazines and newspapers.

Abstract from A Chapter a Day - Association of Book Reading with Longevity 

Although books can expose people to new people and places, whether books also have health benefits beyond other types of reading materials is not known. This study examined whether those who read books have a survival advantage over those who do not read books and over those who read other types of materials, and if so, whether cognition mediates this book reading effect. The cohort consisted of 3635 participants in the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study who provided information about their reading patterns at baseline.

Compared to non-book readers, book readers had a 4-month survival advantage at the point of 80% survival. Book readers also experienced a 20% reduction in risk of mortality over the 12 years of follow up compared to non-book readers.

These findings suggest that the benefits of reading books include a longer life in which to read them.

The study notes:

• We speculated that books engage readers’ minds more than newspapers and magazines, leading to cognitive benefits that drive the effect of reading on longevity. In the following study, we were able to build on previous studies by examining the potential survival advantage of books. We predicted that the survival advantage for reading books would be greater than the survival advantage of reading newspapers and magazines.
• This study found that those who read books for an average of 30 minutes per day – say, a chapter a day – showed a survival advantage, compared to those who did not read books. The robustness of our findings suggest that reading books may not only introduce some interesting ideas and characters, it may also give more years of reading.
  

Original manuscript can be found at the National Library of Medicine:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5105607/

And the final published copy was published at Social Science and Medicine Volume 164 Sept 2016.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.07.014

 

 

Enjoy,
Renee Shelton
Succotash Book Reviews
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Disclosure and More Info: Most books found in the reviews are purchased by me and some have been given to me by publishers or the writers themselves. Some of my large cookbook library collection can be found on The Library Thing, which is a constant work in progress to categorize all my books. All reviews are independent and opinions my own. Any advertising helps support this site. :) Thanks for reading!