The first group included people those who didn’t read books, the second comprised of those who read up to 30 minutes a day, and last group included people who read for more than three and a half hours every week.
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Reading for about half an hour every day isn’t just pleasurable for many people, it can also help you live longer, according to a study from Yale University.
The research also showed that reading magazines and other kinds of written materials are also good, but the best remedy is to read literature (novels). Although if reading means you aren’t going out and thus exposing yourself to all the world’s inherent dangers, maybe you will gain a few years.
As reported via The New York Times, those behind the study questioned 3,635 people over the age of 50 about their reading habits. In the end, when compared to those who gave a hard pass to reading during the week, those who read up to three and a half hours were reportedly “17 percent less likely to die over 12 years of follow-up”. Investigators found the most avid bookworms tended to be university-educated women who had high incomes.
“The returns to education for individuals in such households [with less than a shelf of books] were much lower than for the luckier ones who had more direct access to books”, study author Guglielmo Wiber said.
But even when they adjusted the study to account for employment, age, race, health, depression and whether the person was married, there was still a link between reading and living longer.
Although the similar association was found among newspaper and magazine readers, but it was not as strong as reading books that added an average of 23 extra months to lifespan.
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She added: “These findings suggest that the benefits of reading books include a longer life in which to read them”.
