EpiArts Lab

A partnership with the Center for Arts in Medicine, University of Florida. Explore the dedicated EpiArts Lab website.

In this project we are seeking to address the overarching question: does arts engagement have long-term benefits for health? To find this out, we are using US cohort study data and an epidemiological (statistical) approach to measure the impact of the arts at a population level.

Several specific questions guide this research:

• Are there associations between arts engagement, promotion of wellbeing and prevention of, or recovery from, mental illness?
• Is arts engagement associated with engagement in health-promoting behaviours or reduced likelihood of emotional-behavioural problems or risky behaviours?
• Is engaging in the arts associated with a reduced risk of physical ill-health, such as developing non-communicable diseases, dementia, or age-related decline?
• Are the links between arts engagement and health outcomes similar across different age groups and sociodemographic groups?
• How might arts and cultural engagement be improving health outcomes – what are the active ingredients and potential mechanisms?
• Understanding arts and cultural engagement as a health behaviour – who engages in different activities, where, and with who, and has this changed over time?

We are also comparing findings between and across the UK, US and 13 other countries to analyse different patterns of arts engagement, demographics, social/political structures and health challenges.

Selected publications

For a full list of publications, please visit University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine.

• Interested in findings on specific areas, like mental health, ageing, or equity? Have a look at the Key Research Insights Table
• Curious about the chronology of our studies? Explore the EpiArts Lab Key Insights Infographic

Fancourt, D., Masebo, L., Finn, S., Mak, H. W., Bu, F. (2026). Does leisure activity matter for epigenetic ageing? Analyses of arts engagement and physical activity in the UK Household Longitudinal Study. Innovation in Aging. [DOI]

Bone, J.K., Bu, F., Sonke, J.K., & Fancourt, D. (2026). Behavioral Phenotyping of Arts Engagement Using 20 Years of the American Time Use Survey. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. [DOI]

Bone, J.K., Bu, F., Sonke, J.K., & Fancourt, D. (2026). A comparison of transient experiential wellbeing across health enhancing behaviours in the American Time Use Survey. Scientific Reports. [DOI]

Bone, J.K., Bu, F., Sonke, J.K., & Fancourt, D. (2025). The decline in reading for pleasure over 20 years of the American Time Use Survey. iScience [DOI]

Mak, H. W., Bone, J. K., Noguchi, T., et al. (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]

Marshall, R., Bradbury, A., Morgan, N. et al. (2025). Social prescribing in the USA: emerging learning and opportunities. Lancet Public Health. [DOI]

Bone, J.K., Fancourt, D., Sonke, J.K., & Bu, F. (2024). The Changing Relationship Between Hobby Engagement and Substance Use in Young People: Latent Growth Modelling of the Add Health Cohort. Journal of Youth and Adolescence. [DOI]

Bone, J.K., Bu, F., Sonke, J. K., & Fancourt, D. (2024). Leisure engagement in older age is related to objective and subjective experiences of aging. Nature Communications, 14, 1499. [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, 119, 120–128. [DOI]

Mak, H.W., Noguchi, T., Bone, J.K. et al. (2023). Hobby engagement and mental wellbeing among people aged 65 years and older in 16 countries. Nature Medicine, 29, 2233–2240. [DOI]

Bone, J.K., Fancourt, D., Sonke, J. K., & Bu, F. (2023). Participatory and Receptive Arts Engagement in Older Adults: Associations with Cognition Over a Seven-Year Period. Creativity Research Journal. [DOI]

Bone, J. K., Fancourt, D., Fluharty, M. E., Paul, E., Sonke, J. K., & Bu, F. (2023). Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between arts engagement, loneliness, and social support in adolescence. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 58, 931-938. [DOI]

Bone, J. K., Bu, F., Sonke, J. K., & Fancourt, D. (2023). Longitudinal associations between arts engagement and flourishing in young adults: A fixed effects analysis of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Affective Science. [DOI]

Fluharty, M.E., Bone, J.K., Bu, F., Sonke, J.K., Fancourt, D., & Paul, E. (2023). Associations between extracurricular arts activities, school-based arts engagement, and subsequent externalising behaviours in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. Scientific Reports, 13, 13840. [DOI]

Bone, J. K., Bu, F., Fluharty, M. E., Paul, E., Sonke, J. K., & Fancourt, D. (2022). Engagement in leisure activities and depression in older adults in the United States: Longitudinal evidence from the Health and Retirement Study. Social Science & Medicine, 294, 114703. [DOI]

Bone, J. K., Bu, F., Fluharty, M. E., Paul, E., Sonke, J. K., & Fancourt, D. (2022). Arts and Cultural Engagement, Reportedly Antisocial or Criminalized Behaviors, and Potential Mediators in Two Longitudinal Cohorts of Adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 51, 1463–1482. [DOI]

Bone, J. K., Fancourt, D., Fluharty, M. E., Paul, E., Sonke, J. K., & Bu, F. (2022). Associations between participation in community arts groups and aspects of wellbeing in older adults in the United States: A propensity score matching analysis. Aging & Mental Health. [DOI]

Bone, J. K., Bu, F., Fluharty, M. E., Paul, E., Sonke, J. K., & Fancourt, D. (2021). Who engages in the arts in the United States? A comparison of several types of engagement using data from The General Social Survey. BMC Public Health, 21(1), 1-13. [DOI]