March 2023

A fascinating new summary report by researchers at University College London links participating in arts and culture to longer, healthier lives.

This report summarises findings from a series of longitudinal studies conducted between 2017 and 2022 that examined the relationship between arts and cultural engagement and health and wellbeing outcomes using UK and US cohort studies, and some nifty advanced statistical techniques.

The researchers have also developed some very interesting and useful tools such as a ‘framework of mechanisms of action by which leisure activities could affect health’ and the INNATE Framework (active ingredients of ‘arts in health’ activities).

An overview of training programmes, toolkits, and resources to support development in the field, including facilitating opportunities for early career researchers, can be found here.