Research Department of Behavioural Science and Health, Institute of Epidemiology & Health, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Center for Arts in Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2021 Dec 20;16(12):e0261532. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0261532. eCollection 2021.
Arts and cultural engagement are associated with a range of mental and physical health benefits, including promoting heathy aging and lower incidence of age-related disabilities such as slower cognitive decline and slower progression of frailty. This suggests arts engagement constitutes health-promoting behaviour in older age. However, there are no large-scale studies examining how the predictors of arts engagement vary with age.
Data from the Health and Retirement Study (2014) were used to identify sociodemographic, life satisfaction, social, and arts appreciation predictors of (1) frequency of arts engagement, (2) cultural attendance, (3) difficulty participating in the arts, and (4) being an interested non-attendee of cultural events. Logistic regression models were stratified by age groups [50-59, 60-69, ≥70] for the frequency of arts participation outcome and [50-69 vs ≥70] all other outcomes.
Findings indicated a number of age-related predictors of frequent arts engagement, including gender, educational attainment, wealth, dissatisfaction with aging, and instrumental activities of daily living (iADL). For cultural event attendance, lower interest in the arts predicted lack of engagement across age groups, whereas higher educational attainment and more frequent religious service attendance became predictors in older age groups (≥ 70). Adults in both age groups were less likely to report difficulties engaging in the arts if they had lower neighbourhood safety, whilst poor self-rated health and low arts appreciation also predicted reduced likelihood of this outcome, but only in the younger (50-69) age group. Adults in the older (≥ 70) age group were more likely to be interested non-attendees of cultural events if they had higher educational attainment and less likely if they lived in neighbourhoods with low levels of safety.
Our results suggest that certain factors become stronger predictors of arts and cultural engagement and barriers to engagement as people age. Further, there appear to be socioeconomic inequalities in engagement that may increase in older ages, with arts activities overall more accessible as individuals age compared to cultural engagement due to additional financial barriers and transportation barriers. Ensuring that these activities are accessible to people of all ages will allow older adults to benefit from the range of health outcomes gained from arts and cultural engagement.
艺术和文化参与与一系列身心健康益处相关联，包括促进健康老龄化和降低与年龄相关的残疾发生率，如认知能力下降减缓以及虚弱程度进展减缓。这表明艺术参与构成老年时的促进健康行为。然而，目前尚无大规模研究检查艺术参与的预测因素如何随年龄而变化。
使用来自健康与退休研究（2014 年）的数据，确定社会人口统计学、生活满意度、社会和艺术欣赏方面预测因素（1）艺术参与的频率，（2）文化参与，（3）参与艺术的困难程度，以及（4）对文化活动感兴趣但不参加的非参与者。对于艺术参与的频率结果，使用逻辑回归模型按年龄组[50-59、60-69、≥70]进行分层；对于所有其他结果，使用[50-69 岁与≥70 岁]进行分层。
研究结果表明，许多与年龄相关的因素可预测频繁的艺术参与，包括性别、教育程度、财富、对衰老的不满以及日常生活活动的工具性（iADL）。对于文化活动的参与，对艺术的兴趣较低预示着各年龄段的缺乏参与，而较高的教育程度和更频繁的宗教服务参与则成为年龄较大的年龄段（≥70 岁）的预测因素。如果社区安全性较低，两个年龄组的成年人在参与艺术方面都不太可能遇到困难，而较差的自我健康评估和较低的艺术欣赏水平也预示着这种结果的可能性降低，但仅在较年轻的（50-69 岁）年龄组中如此。如果社区安全水平较低，处于老年（≥70 岁）年龄组的成年人更有可能成为对文化活动感兴趣但不参加的非参与者，而如果教育程度较高，则不太可能成为这种非参与者。
我们的研究结果表明，随着人们年龄的增长，某些因素成为艺术和文化参与以及参与障碍的更强预测因素。此外，由于额外的经济障碍和交通障碍，文化参与的社会经济不平等似乎会随着年龄的增长而增加，与文化参与相比，随着年龄的增长，艺术活动总体上更容易获得，从而使老年人受益于从艺术和文化参与中获得的一系列健康结果。
