If that advice seems a bit off the wall after years of being told the key to long life is to follow some diet or another or spend hours running, keep reading. It’s not a joke.
A recent study published in the British Medical Journal suggests that museum visits, concert attendance and theater may help you live a longer, and certainly more interesting life. It might even go some way to explaining how so many older travelers you meet these days—the ‘gray wave.’
The authors of the BMJ study asked a study group of participants who were over the age of 50 when the study began 14 years ago to self-report how frequently they participated in what the study calls “receptive arts engagement.”
At the end of the study, they found that those who engaged at least every few months had a 31 percent lower death rate than those in the group who didn’t participate in arts activities. Those who went only once or twice a year had a 14 percent lower risk than those who didn’t go at all. The study says the results are “independent of demographic, socioeconomic, health related, behavioural, and social factors.”
“This association might be partly explained by differences in cognition, mental health, and physical activity among those who do and do not engage in the arts, but remains even when the model is adjusted for these factors,” according to the researchers at the University of Central London.
