So Many Books ... More Time to Read

Each month in our Scandinavian Scribblers writing group we read aloud during the meeting what we have written at home. You learn something about your fellow writers when you hear them share their stories month after month. Their selection of topics, the details of what they relate, and the way they say it all contribute to the experience.  Most often we write personal stories, and therefore we have learned about our fellow members, their arenas and grandparents, their children, their work, avocations, and travel. This past Monday one of our members, who worked for many years as a scientist, reported on a technical study of the effects of reading on longevity.

The provenance of the report is amusing. Our Scribbler found the story in a Danish language newspapers, published in the U.S. Essentially he translated the brief article from Danish to English for us. It told of a Yale study of 3600 people over 50 years of age that concluded that book readers lived longer than people who did not read.  Subjects were divided into three groups: those who did not read books at all, those who read 3 1/2 hours per week, and those who read more. People who read for up to 3 1/2 hours per week were 17 percent less likely to die during the 12 years of follow-up, and those who read more than that were 23 percent less likely to die. On average, book readers lived two years longer than those who did not read at all. Although a similar correlation existed for those who read newspapers and magazines but not books, it was weaker than for those who read books.

I did not catch all the details of the report during the meeting, but I congratulated myself for taking a picture of the news article tom the Bien newspaper so I could read it later. Unfortunately, my photo wasn't good enough for me to really read all the details. I noticed that the Bien article had gotten its facts from the New York Times. It was a simple matter, therefore, to run a Google search and find the New York Times story as well as other coverage in the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and professional literature and sites as well. Most of the coverage was markedly similar--three or four paragraphs, all with the same facts, descriptions, and quotes.Occasionally some analysis or even questioning would be added and a longer article ensued. Several of the articles named the original journal in which the results had been reported: Social Science & Medicine, September 2016 issue. I followed the links through to see whether I could get to the article, but no, it was behind a pay wall. The abstract was available for free, however:

Abstract
Although books can expose people to new people and places, whether books also have health benefits beyond other types of reading materials is not known. This study examined whether those who read books have a survival advantage over those who do not read books and over those who read other types of materials, and if so, whether cognition mediates this book reading effect. The cohort consisted of 3635 participants in the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study who provided information about their reading patterns at baseline. Cox proportional hazards models were based on survival information up to 12 years after baseline. A dose-response survival advantage was found for book reading by tertile (HRT2 = 0.83, p < 0.001, HRT3 = 0.77, p < 0.001), after adjusting for relevant covariates including age, sex, race, education, comorbidities, self-rated health, wealth, marital status, and depression. Book reading contributed to a survival advantage that was significantly greater than that observed for reading newspapers or magazines (tT2 = 90.6, p < 0.001; tT3 = 67.9, p < 0.001). Compared to non-book readers, book readers had a 23-month survival advantage at the point of 80% survival in the unadjusted model. A survival advantage persisted after adjustment for all covariates (HR = .80, p < .01), indicating book readers experienced a 20% reduction in risk of mortality over the 12 years of follow up compared to non-book readers. Cognition mediated the book reading-survival advantage (p = 0.04). These findings suggest that the benefits of reading books include a longer life in which to read them.

After I read it, I determined that I need not try the original article. The level of scholarly description and statistical analysis was more than I can comfortably tackle. I sure would hate to use up my "extra" two hours of life reading academic jargon when it would be much more beneficial and fun to read a book.