The study, published in the journal Innovation in Aging, analysed blood test data and survey responses from 3,556 adults participating in the UK Household Longitudinal Study, a nationally representative research programme. The research team at University College London (UCL) compared participants' engagement in arts and cultural activities with chemical changes to their DNA — specifically, changes to the way genes are expressed without altering the underlying genetic code, known as epigenetic changes. Biological age was estimated using seven different epigenetic clocks, tools that measure DNA modification patterns to assess how rapidly a person is ageing.
The findings were consistent: those who engaged in arts and cultural activities more often, and across a wider variety of them, showed a slower pace of biological ageing and a younger biological age. For the DunedinPACE clock — one of the most precise measures of ageing pace — doing an arts activity at least three times a year was linked to ageing 2% more slowly, monthly engagement to 3% slower ageing, and weekly activity to 4% slower ageing.
Using a separate biological age clock called PhenoAge, people who engaged with arts at least weekly were on average a full year younger biologically than those who rarely did. The same measurement for weekly exercise showed just over half a year's difference — making arts engagement, remarkably, the stronger result of the two.
Lead author Professor Daisy Fancourt, head of the social biobehavioural research group at UCL, said the results demonstrate the arts' impact at a biological level and provide evidence for cultural engagement to be recognised as a health-promoting behaviour in the same way as exercise. The effect applied to both active participants — singers, dancers, painters — and passive ones: concert-goers, gallery visitors, and museum walkers all showed the same benefit.