Research Department of Behavioural Science and Health, Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, University College London, London, UK.
Center for Arts in Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 2023 Oct;334:116198. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116198. Epub 2023 Aug 31.
Arts engagement is associated with prolonged longevity, but it remains unclear whether it is also associated with increases in the portion of people's lives for which they remain healthy. We investigated whether receptive and participatory arts engagement were associated with healthy aging two and four years later.
We included 1269 older adults from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a longitudinal study of individuals aged 50 and above in the United States. Participants who completed the HRS 2014 Culture and the Arts Module and who were alive in 2016 and 2018 were eligible. We measured the number of participatory arts activities engaged in (e.g., crafts, dancing) and frequency of receptive arts engagement (e.g., going to a gallery or performance) in the past year. Healthy aging was a binary outcome, conceptualized as no major chronic diseases, no cognitive impairment, good physical functioning, and good mental health.
In logistic regression models, doing receptive arts once a month or more was associated with higher odds of healthy aging four years later compared to never engaging (odds ratio [OR] = 1.80, 95% CI = 1.10, 2.96). However, this evidence was attenuated after adjusting for demographic and socioeconomic covariates (adjusted OR = 1.44, 95% CI = 0.84, 2.46). The number of participatory arts activities engaged in was not associated with healthy aging two or four years later. In sensitivity analyses, there was some evidence that receptive engagement was associated specifically with higher odds of good physical functioning four years later.
The lack of consistent associations between receptive and participatory arts engagement and healthy aging was unexpected given previous evidence for links between arts engagement and each of the four domains of healthy aging. Our findings highlight key methodological issues that should be explored in further research with larger nationally representative samples, longer follow-ups, and more detailed measures of arts engagement.
艺术参与与长寿有关，但尚不清楚它是否也与人们健康生活的比例增加有关。我们研究了接受性和参与性艺术参与是否与两年和四年后的健康老龄化有关。
我们纳入了来自美国健康与退休研究（HRS）的 1269 名老年人，这是一项对 50 岁及以上人群的纵向研究。符合条件的参与者需完成 HRS 2014 年文化与艺术模块，并且在 2016 年和 2018 年仍然在世。我们测量了过去一年中参与的参与性艺术活动的数量（例如，手工艺、跳舞）和接受性艺术参与的频率（例如，去画廊或表演）。健康老龄化是一个二分结果，被定义为没有主要的慢性疾病、认知障碍、身体功能良好和心理健康良好。
在逻辑回归模型中，每月或更多次进行接受性艺术活动与四年后健康老龄化的几率较高相关（优势比[OR] = 1.80，95%可信区间[CI] = 1.10，2.96）。然而，在调整了人口统计学和社会经济协变量后，这种证据减弱了（调整后的 OR = 1.44，95% CI = 0.84，2.46）。参与的参与性艺术活动的数量与两年或四年后的健康老龄化无关。在敏感性分析中，有一些证据表明接受性参与与四年后身体功能良好的几率较高有关。
鉴于之前有证据表明艺术参与与健康老龄化的四个领域中的每一个都有关联，接受性和参与性艺术参与与健康老龄化之间缺乏一致的关联是出乎意料的。我们的研究结果突出了在进一步的研究中应该探索的关键方法问题，这些研究需要使用更大的全国代表性样本、更长的随访时间和更详细的艺术参与测量。
