Higher levels of cultural engagement are significantly associated with lower physiological ageing, according to an analysis published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. A person’s physiological age — a measure of how well the body functions — can differ from their chronological age, and cultural engagement such as going to the cinema, a museum, or the theatre has previously been linked to improved health outcomes among older adults.

Researchers from the Institute of Science Tokyo say theirs is the first longitudinal study to examine the link between cultural engagement and physiological age while controlling for unmeasured, time-invariant confounding factors. They analysed data on 1,899 adults from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, an ongoing study following a nationally representative sample of English adults aged 50 and older, using ten physiological markers — including blood pressure, lung function, cholesterol, BMI, grip strength and walking speed — to produce a composite physiological age score.

Participants with high levels of cultural engagement (doing something cultural every few months or more) had a physiological age of 66.9 years, three years lower than those with lower engagement (69.9 years). After adjusting for confounders such as household income, employment and chronic health conditions, a one-point higher cultural engagement score was associated with a 0.085-year (31-day) lower physiological age.

The study is observational, so it cannot establish cause and effect, and the authors acknowledge the findings could partly reflect reverse causation — people in better health may simply be more able to take part in cultural activities. Even so, they argue cultural engagement is modifiable and could be an effective intervention. “Notably, the impact can be comparable to frequent physical activity,” they write, adding that improving geographical and financial access to cultural events could expand opportunities for participation.

Publication

The study, “Cultural engagement and physiological ageing: a fixed-effects analysis,” was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health (DOI: 10.1136/jech-2025-225753), with funding from the Japan Society for Promotion of Science.