New study associates reading books with a longer life
A chapter a day keeps the doctor away?
Move over apples – new research suggests that reading books every day can help you live longer.
A study published by US researchers in the academic journal Social Science & Medicine has concluded that “book reading provides a survival advantage among the elderly”.
The study, which tracked 3635 participants over 50 for 12 years, differentiated between those who read no books, those who read books up to three and a half hours a week, and those who read for more than three and a half hours.
It found that those who read books for three and a half hours a week were 17 per cent less likely to die over the 12-year period than those who didn’t read at all, while those who read for more than three and a half hours were 23 per cent less likely to die.
“People who report as little as a half-hour a day of book reading had a significant survival advantage over those who did not read,” the study’s senior author, Becca R Levy, a professor of epidemiology at Yale, was quoted as saying in a New York Times blog post.
The study also found that “books are more advantageous for survival than newspapers/magazines” and “books are protective regardless of gender, wealth, education, or health”.
“These findings suggest that the benefits of reading books include a longer life in which to read them” the study concluded.
Tell us in the comments below, are you an avid reader? What book are you loving at the moment?
First appeared on Stuff.co.nz.
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