Ageing poses challenges to one’s everyday life due to an increased risk of depression, cognitive decline, and deteriorating physical health, which often interplay with reduced leisure engagement. Leisure engagement refers to a person’s voluntary participation in activities that include or facilitate social interaction, including activities such as participation in social clubs, exercise groups, volunteering, and arts and cultural engagement. Leisure engagement is considered a modifiable factor that can support healthy ageing, as it contains multiple active ingredients (components that make up an activity) that can activate various mechanisms which connect leisure engagement to wellbeing improvements.
WE-EngAGE explores the impact of leisure engagement on the psychological, cognitive, and physical wellbeing of older adults, and seek to identify ways to increase leisure engagement.
Funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), this research will answer three main research questions:
- What are the long-term effects of leisure engagement on older people’s wellbeing and ageing processes?
- Are the associations between engagement and wellbeing universal across different groups of older adults?
- What are the barriers and enablers of leisure engagement among older adults?
Research methods
This project will apply different methods to answer our research questions. Quantitatively, we will analyse UK longitudinal datasets such as the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. We will also collect primary data via online surveys. Qualitatively, we will conduct focus groups with older adults. We will work in partnership with a cross-sector advisory group, including older adults with lived experience and individuals/organisations working across research, practice, and policy to help refine research directions, ensuring impact activities reach wider and more diverse audiences. You can read our blog on how we are refining our research with our advisory group here.
Outcomes
Across a wide range of planned dissemination activities, this project aims to support cross-sector initiatives that allow and encourage older adults to uptake leisure engagement and, in doing so, support their wellbeing in later life. Thus far, this reseach has been presented at a Making Music webinar, BBC Science Focus and Understanding Society podcasts.
In Spring 2026, members of the research team gave a presentation sharing their findings. The webinar explored how leisure activities shape mental, physical, and cognitive wellbeing in later life, and the barriers and enablers that influence participation. Speakers also highlighted the implications of research for practice, policy, and future studies, translating evidence into meaningful impact for older adults. You can find a recording of the webinar below.
Publications
Fancourt, D., Finn, S., Mak, H. W., Steptoe, A., & Bloomberg, M. (2025). Cultural engagement is related to decelerated physiological age: doubly-robust estimations in a national cohort study. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. [DOI]
Finn, S., Bone, J. K., Fancourt, D., Warran, K., & Mak, H. W. (2025). Longitudinal associations between cultural engagement and mental and social well-being: A fixed-effects analysis of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences. [DOI]
Mak, H. W., Bone, J. K., Noguchi, T., Kim, J., So, R., Walker, E., … & Fancourt, D. (2025). Global inequalities in arts, music or educational organization membership: an epidemiological analysis of 73,825 adults from 51 countries. BMC Global and Public Health. [DOI]
Gao, Q., Bone, J. K., Finn, S., & Fancourt, D. (2024). The reciprocal associations between social deficits, social engagement, and inflammation: Longitudinal evidence comparing venous blood samples and dried blood spots and mapping the modifying role of phenotypic and genotypic depression. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. [DOI]
Bone, J.K., Noguchi, T., Mak, H.W., Fancourt, D., Kondo, K., Saito, T. (2024). Does arts and cultural group participation influence subsequent wellbeing? A longitudinal cross-country comparison of older adults in Japan and England. BMJ Public Health. [DOI]
Bu, F., Hayes D., Burton A., &Fancourt, D. (2024). Equal, equitable or exacerbating inequalities: patterns and predictors of social prescribing referrals in 160 128 UK patients. BJPsych. [DOI]