A chapter a day? Research finds that book readers live longer

If you are reading this, chances are you care about health. Well here’s a piece of advice: stop reading this article and pick up a book. According to a recent study by researchers at Yale University, you may live longer if you do.
Recently published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, the study finds that book readers experienced a 20 percent reduction in risk of mortality over 12 years compared to non-book readers. The authors conclude that “the benefits of reading books include a longer life in which to read them.”

This ‘novel’ research is based on data from a longitudinal Health and Retirement Study sponsored by the National Institute on Aging, which followed a cohort of 3,635 subjects over the age of 50. Participants were divided into three groups: those who didn’t read books, those who read up to 3.5 hours a week, and those who read more than 3.5 hours a week. The findings were remarkable: after 12 years, book readers survived nearly two years longer than those who didn’t read.

Why or how reading promotes longevity remains unclear - the research showed only an association between book reading and longevity, not a causal relationship. But the authors do develop a hypothesis: “reading books provides a survival advantage due to the immersive nature that helps maintain cognitive status.”

Importantly, the analysis ruled out reverse causality - the possibility that higher cognition caused more reading, rather than the other way around. The authors also found that reading periodicals and magazines did not have the same effect as reading books. This supported their hypothesis that reading a book requires making connections between characters, themes, and topics in greater length and depth, and that this cognitive process produces a survival advantage.

The findings are also robust because the authors adjusted for covariates like age, sex, education, wealth, comorbidities, and depression. So even among highly educated people, or among those who are less wealthy, book reading was associated with longer life.

Do you want the good news or the bad news? As The Washington Post reports, book buying has increased annually during the past few years, with at least 652 million print and electronic books sold in the United States in 2015. The bad news is that Americans don’t read as much as many other countries. India, Thailand and China are the top three countries for reading, while the U.S. comes in 23rd, behind countries like Egypt, Australia, Turkey and Germany.

While the study doesn’t distinguish between print and e-books or audiobooks, this would be an interesting area for future research. E-book spending has grown from 1 percent of library budgets to 7 percent, according to coverage from The Washington Post. And while surveys suggest that the next generation of readers still prefers print, some 26 percent of millennials say they read about the same amount of print and e-books.

Ironically, mHealth blog articles were not associated with any increase in longevity.