Theatre and museum trips linked to living longer
Older people who engage with the arts live longer than those who take part infrequently or not at all, according to UCL research. The study, published today in the BMJ , measured engagement in the 'receptive arts' such as going to the theatre, concerts, opera, museums, art galleries and exhibitions, and linked this to mortality. For this, the team analysed data from 6,710 adults aged 50 and over from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and followed up the mixed group of men and women after 14 years. Lead author, Dr Daisy Fancourt (UCL Epidemiology & Health Care), said: "We have seen increasing evidence to show the health benefit of the arts and while 'leisure' has been broadly linked to a lower risk of premature death, few studies have focused specifically on arts engagement in the UK. "In this study, we found that arts engagement could have a protective associative with longevity in older adults which could partly be explained by differences in cognitions, mental health, and physical activity." Frequency of engagement with any of the activities was categorised as 'never', 'infrequent' (less than once a year, or once or twice a year) or 'frequent' (every few months, or monthly or more). The findings show adults who engaged in the arts on a frequent basis had a 31% lower risk of dying (2.4 deaths per 1000 person years) at any point during the follow-up period compared with those who had not. The risk was 14% lower (3.5 deaths per 1000 person years vs 6 deaths per 1000 person years) among people who engaged with the arts on an infrequent basis compared to those who never engaged.
Advert