Our research paper, “Public libraries and functional disability: A cohort study of Japanese older adults,” analyzed data from 73,138 community-dwelling adults aged 65 and older across 19 Japanese municipalities (mean follow-up 7.3 years) and demonstrated that each additional library book per person corresponded to a 4% reduction in the risk of requiring long-term care.
This finding was featured exclusively in Japanese media, most notably in medical journalist Naoko Iwanaga’s newsletter, which provides an accessible overview of the study alongside commentary from Koji Fujisaka, former director of Nagoya City Shidami Library.
Click here to read the Japanese newsletter. The full paper in English is available here.