Jj is for Jottings 150.  Reading Books=Longer Life.

Research – some but not all – is now telling us that reading novels leads to a longer life.  On the other hand, it is well known that long periods of sitting increases health risks and reduces life span.  Researchers from Yale University set out to investigate three things:

• Whether there is really a life-extending benefit from reading.
• What is the mechanism behind it?
• Do different types of reading material have different effects on longevity? There have been no studies done on this aspect.
• Reading Books=Longer Life. These two are starting early.

COGNITIVE ENGAGEMENT.

Researchers began with the theory that reading probably does increase life span, and that it is probably because it engages cognitive processes.  They also suspected that books are more likely to have this effect rather than newspapers or magazines.  Reading involves two cognitive processes which might give a survival advantage:

Deep Reading.

Reading books promotes “deep reading”.  This is occurs as the reader makes connections to other parts of the material, finds applications to the outside world, and asks questions about the content.

This cognitive engagement may explain why vocabulary, reasoning, concentration, and critical thinking skills are improved by exposure to books.

Emotional Intelligence.

Books can also promote empathy, social perception, and emotional intelligence, which are cognitive processes that can lead to greater survival. Better health behaviours and reduced stress may explain this process.

Why did the researchers suspect that books achieved these health and emotional benefits better than magazines or newspapers?  Answer: there is greater length and depth to topics, characters and themes in books.

 

BOOKS vs NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES.

The Study.

Researchers collected information from 3,635 participants over the age of 50. These people had taken part in the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study. This included information about reading patterns.

The weekly time spent by each person reading books was divided into 0, up to 3.49 hours, and 3.5+ hours per week. For magazines and newspapers, the divisions were 0 to 2 hours, 2.01 to 6.99, and 7+ hours per week.  They didn’t say how they arrived at the different time divisions, but it makes sense that they would be different.

Luckily for the researchers, almost 40 % of the sample read either books or newspapers and magazines but not both.  This made it much easier to crunch those numbers!  They also had data on participants’ age, gender, race, wealth, education, job and marital status, cognitive status and engagement, vision, and health problems including depression.  They took all these factors into consideration.  This, added to the large number of participants and the length of follow-up, meant that this was a comprehensive and robust study.

The Results.

The final result was that reading books reduces mortality by 20%.  That is really substantial. Those who read up to 3.5 hours a week were 17 % less likely to die. This rose to 23 % for those who read for greater lengths of time per week.  Reading books was protective regardless of gender, wealth, education level and health.

The analysis also demonstrated that any level of book reading provides a significantly stronger survival advantage than reading newspapers or magazines.

READING BOOKS IMPROVES BRAIN FUNCTION.

For the first time ever, the study also showed that improved survival was because book reading improves cognition.  You might think it could be other way around – that people with better cognition are more likely to read.  But it’s not that people read because they’re smart; they become smart because they read.

Here is a quote from the Yale team: “This finding suggests that reading books provides a survival advantage due to the immersive nature that helps maintain cognitive status.”  And, “These findings suggest that the benefits of reading books include a longer life in which to read them.”

The study didn’t look at what types of books people were reading.  However, a national survey found that 87 % of book readers read fiction.

ANOTHER REASON TO ENCOURAGE YOUR CHILDREN TO READ.

So here is yet another reason to encourage your child to read: reading books=longer life.  If you encounter reluctance, you will find 7 tips for reluctant readers will help.  Also bear in mind that children who own books read more.

Check out the Facebook page: Aa is for Alpacas.