museums<\/a> and art galleries.<\/p>\nThis information was used to create a cultural engagement score, ranging from zero to 15. <\/p>\n
Nurses subsequently assessed 10 physiological markers for each participant, including body mass index, grip strength, walking speed, and diastolic blood pressure.<\/p>\n
The findings, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, suggest higher levels of cultural engagement are \u201csignificantly associated\u201d with lower psychological ageing.<\/p>\n
![\"Researchers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/01KXFSWX5J25JJ14PDVNGFYN3C.jpg\")
Researchers said that promoting engagement with culture could be a \u2018promising strategy to slow the pace of physiological ageing\u2019 (PA)<\/p>\n
The analysis found that those who took part in outings that included the likes of museums, galleries and the cinema, every few months, had a physiological age of 66.9 years, three years lower than those who did so less often.<\/p>\n
People with higher scores were also more likely to be women, be in paid employment and have better health conditions.<\/p>\n
Researchers said that promoting engagement with culture could be a \u201cpromising strategy to slow the pace of physiological ageing and support healthy ageing in older adults\u201d.<\/p>\n
They added: \u201cCultural engagement is modifiable, and thus, it can serve as an effective intervention point for healthy longevity.<\/p>\n
\u201cNotably, the impact can be comparable to frequent physical activity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIncreasing geographical and financial accessibility to cultural infrastructure and events would expand opportunities for frequent participation.<\/p>\n
\u201cCommunity-based cultural activities may also foster greater community involvement.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, a 10-week museum programme that included curator talks, object handling and discussion, and arts activities improved emotional outcomes such as cheerfulness and feelings of encouragement among socially isolated older adults.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, a study from academics from University College London (UCL) found evidence that arts and cultural engagement should be \u201crecognised as a health-promoting behaviour in a similar way to exercise\u201d.<\/p>\n
Researchers found that a variety of activities were seen to be useful including reading, listening to music or visiting a gallery or museum.<\/p>\n
This could because each activity has a different impact on physical, cognitive, emotional or social stimulation, they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese results demonstrate the health impact of the arts at a biological level,\u201d said lead author Professor Daisy Fancourt, from UCL\u2019s Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey provide evidence for arts and cultural engagement to be recognised as a health-promoting behaviour in a similar way to exercise.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur study also suggests that engaging in a variety of arts activities may be helpful.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis may be because each activity has different \u2018ingredients\u2019 that help health, such as physical, cognitive, emotional or social stimulation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[6647,102,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-692872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}