THERE IS A CLEAR, CRUCIAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHILDHOOD LITERACY AND INTERGENERATIONAL PHYSICAL HEALTH: In Older Children and Adolescents: Lower literacy rates are associated with higher risks of violence, aggressive behaviors, substance use, and sexually transmitted infections (Park et al., 2017; Hawthorne, 1997; Davis et al., 1999; Stanton et al., 1990; Miles & Stipek, 2006; Sanders et al., 2009). In Adults: Individuals with lower literacy rates are at increased risk for hospitalization compared to their peers with higher literacy rates, both among those not receiving Medicare (1.69 times more likely to be hospitalized) and those receiving Medicare (1.2 times more likely) (DeWalt et al., 2004; Baker et al., 2002; Baker et al., 1997). Additionally, global studies indicate that lower maternal literacy rates predict infant mortality (Shetty, 2014). What’s more, studies indicate a strong independent relationship between low maternal literacy and increased rates of maternal depressive symptoms and decreased breastfeeding (Sanders et al., 2009). In Aging Adults: Reading and literacy are proven to impact long-term cognitive health. In 2013, Berns et al. found that reading strengthens the language processing regions of the human brain. And in their extensive research on aging, Galit Weinstein, Ella Cohn- Schwartz, and Noam Damri, posit that “early-life book-oriented environment may be important in shaping cognitive aging…and to slower cognitive decline, independently of education and life-course factors such as health, lifestyle, and socioeconomic indices.” (2021, p. 274). Perhaps most powerfully: a longitudinal study from Avni Bavishi, Martin Slade, and Becca Levy in 2016 found that book readers live almost 23 months longer than non-readers . Those who read for more than 3.5 hours a week were 20 percent less likely to die over the 12-year study follow-up than those who didn’t read books. The researchers put it simply (2016, p. 44): “The benefits of reading books include a longer life in which to read them.”
READING FOR LIFE: THE IMPACT OF YOUTH LITERACY ON HEALTH OUTCOMES 7
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