In this project we explored the impact of arts and cultural engagement on health and wellbeing at a population level, using UCL cohort data including ELSA and the British Birth Cohort studies. Specifically, the project examined the effects of cultural engagement, active arts participation and passive arts consumption on diagnosed mental and physical health conditions, physiological measures, cognitive measures and psychosocial measures of health and wellbeing.
The project was supported by a steering group of representatives from Public Health England, Public Health Wales, NHS Health Scotland, the Royal Society for Public Health, the What Works Centre for Wellbeing, Arts Council England, Arts Council of Wales, Creative Scotland, and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Key findings
We examined over a dozen cohort studies from the UK and the USA and found significant evidence for the role that arts and cultural engagement can play in protecting and improving health over the lifespan. For example, we demonstrated that:
- People who engaged with receptive arts activities on a frequent basis (every few months or more) had a 31% lower risk of dying than people who never engaged, independent of demographic, socioeconomic, health related, behavioural, and social factors. Even infrequent engagement (once a year) was linked to a 14% lower risk.
- People who engage in arts and culture have lower incidence of depression during adulthood
- Reading during childhood is related to more positive health behaviours in adolescence
- For older people, cultural engagement is linked to a lower incidence of chronic pain and frailty, and a lower risk of a dementia diagnosis
- These relationships hold true even when accounting for factors such as socioeconomic status and past health conditions. However, we also uncovered inequalities in participation in arts and culture and found barriers that may prevent people from benefitting from these activities.
Many of our analyses were the first to ever be conducted on the research questions we posed, so our study has gone a long way to fill the research gaps that existed just a few years ago.