Electronic readers 'better than books' for older people

Elderly people should use e-readers or tablet computers rather than books because they place less strain on the eyes while reading, a study has found. 

Digital reading devices allow older people to read the same text more quickly and with less effort than printed pages, without affecting their understanding of the text, researchers said.

But when asked which device they preferred reading on, traditional books were twice as popular as electronic devices among older readers, backing up previous surveys.

The results suggest that despite digital book sales overtaking print in the UK and the US, readers are still more attached to the culture associated with books than the convenience of electronic devices.

Researchers from Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, tracked the eye movements and brain activity of 36 younger participants aged 21-34, and 21 older adults aged 60 and above as they read text from e-readers, tablet computers and printed pages.

Each participant was asked to read extracts from nine texts which ranged in difficulty from fiction extracts to academic texts, reading each one once on either a tablet, e-reader or printed page. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9852996/Electronic-readers-better-than-books-for-older-people.html