This overlooked lifestyle change could be hurting your brain

Cross-sectional data from 236,270 Americans collected from January 2003 to December 2023 (excluding 2020) analyzed surveys of people aged 15 and older about daily habits. Leisure reading participation declined roughly 3% per year and dropped about 40% overall, from 28% in 2004 to 16% in 2023. Individuals who continue to read for pleasure increased their daily reading from about 1 hour 23 minutes to 1 hour 37 minutes. The long-term downward trend spans decades and racial disparities deepened, with white adult leisure reading falling from 29% in 2002 to 18% in 2023 and a worsening gap between Black and white Americans.

The study, which was published recently in iScience, examined cross-sectional data from 236,270 Americans collected over a 20 year span, from January 2003 to December 2023 (excluding 2020, as data collection was paused due to the pandemic). The research included analyzing surveys from those 15 and older about their daily habits. Researchers found that reading rates are way down, but not for everyone. Those who read for pleasure are doing so for longer intervals.

At the start of the data collection in 20023, leisure readers read for an hour and 23 minutes per day. In 2023, that figure was up to an hour and 37 minutes. However, overall, the percentage of those who read for pleasure has seen a steep decline. Researchers concluded that activity has steadily dropped by about 3% per year over the course of the data collection.Plainly, less Americans are reading for pleasure now than they were 20 years ago.

In fact, it dropped by 40%. In 2004, the number of leisure reading was at a high of 28%. Two years ago, in 2023, that figure was down to just 16%. The study's authors say that sharp decline is cause for concern. "This decline is concerning given earlier evidence for downward trends in reading for pleasure from the 1940s through to the start of our study in 2003, suggesting at least 80 years of continued decline in reading for pleasure," researchers wrote in the study.Perhaps more concerning, however, was the worsening disparity between Black and white Americans when it came to time spent reading for pleasure.

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