Reading books may help you live longer, a new study says.
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To reach their findings, the team analyzed the data of 3,635 men and women who were part of the Health and Retirement Study – a nationally representative sample of American adults aged 50 and older.
The team divided them up into three groups: those who didn’t read books, those that read up to three and a half hours a week, and those who read for longer than this every week.
A study published by United States researchers in the academic journal Social Science & Medicine has concluded that “book reading provides a survival advantage among the elderly”. Certain other factors were also taken into consideration like age, depression, employment, health and marital status of the participants.
The researchers hence concluded that those who read books often lived around two years longer than those people who did not read book at all.
They found a similar, but weaker, association among those who read newspapers and periodicals.
Moreover, the results do not depend on education, wealth, or cognitive ability, showing that anyone can do it and have benefits out of the activity. These findings were published in Social Science & Medicine.
Those who read up to 3.5 hours – an average of a half-hour a day – were 17 percent less likely.
However, multiple studies show that literacy levels can affect several aspects of a person’s life, from economic wellbeing to family circumstances and mental health.
Children who have access to books can expect a better income (among other benefits) than those who don’t.
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It seems American musician Frank Zappa was wrong when he said “so many books, so little time”. Since reading books exposes individuals to more words than conversations, it can lead to higher scores on reading tests and general tests of intelligence, Real Simple reported.
