Visiting museums and other cultural venues can improve people’s health, according to a new report.
The aim of the report, Cultural Attendance and Public Mental Health: from Research to Practice, was to “analyse the association between cultural activity and perceived health, anxiety, depression and satisfaction with life in both genders”.
Researchers at the London-based Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health interviewed 50,797 adults from Nord-Trøndelag county in Norway.
Participants were asked about their “receptive” activities, such as attending galleries and cultural events, and “creative” side involving hands-on aspects such as painting, singing and playing an instrument.
Both types of cultural activity were “significantly associated with good health, good satisfaction with life, low anxiety and depression scores in both genders”, regardless of social background. “Receptive” activities, however, boost men’s health in particular.
“The study findings are not at all a surprise, as they confirm many previous studies,” said Mark O’Neill, director of policy, research and development at Glasgow Life and the author of the report.
“What all this research means is that museums are part of a general well-being service that has a preventive health function.”
When asked whether such studies could help raise private and public funding, O’Neill said: “Leveraging money may be possible, but it would require close and genuine long-term partnerships with the NHS and other health agencies, enabling people in target groups to access cultural facilities in large enough numbers to make a difference at a population level.
“Such partnerships take a long time to develop,” O’Neill said. “They are, however, what museums should be doing anyway, as many are.”
The aim of the report, Cultural Attendance and Public Mental Health: from Research to Practice, was to “analyse the association between cultural activity and perceived health, anxiety, depression and satisfaction with life in both genders”.
Researchers at the London-based Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health interviewed 50,797 adults from Nord-Trøndelag county in Norway.
Participants were asked about their “receptive” activities, such as attending galleries and cultural events, and “creative” side involving hands-on aspects such as painting, singing and playing an instrument.
Both types of cultural activity were “significantly associated with good health, good satisfaction with life, low anxiety and depression scores in both genders”, regardless of social background. “Receptive” activities, however, boost men’s health in particular.
“The study findings are not at all a surprise, as they confirm many previous studies,” said Mark O’Neill, director of policy, research and development at Glasgow Life and the author of the report.
“What all this research means is that museums are part of a general well-being service that has a preventive health function.”
When asked whether such studies could help raise private and public funding, O’Neill said: “Leveraging money may be possible, but it would require close and genuine long-term partnerships with the NHS and other health agencies, enabling people in target groups to access cultural facilities in large enough numbers to make a difference at a population level.
“Such partnerships take a long time to develop,” O’Neill said. “They are, however, what museums should be doing anyway, as many are.”