ArticleScientific reports2018
Cultural engagement predicts changes in cognitive function in older adults over a 10 year period: findings from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.
Article in Scientific reports, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The effects of cultural engagement on health and well-being: a systematic review.Frontiers in public health · 2024Pooled it
- Arts and creativity interventions for improving health and wellbeing in older adults: a systematic literature review of economic evaluation studies.BMC public health · 2023Pooled it
- The impact of performing arts on mental health, social connection, and creativity in university students: a Randomised Controlled Trial.BMC public health · 2025Trial
- Utilizing the arts to improve health, resilience, and well-being (HeRe We ArtsFrontiers in public health · 2024Trial
- Perceived Social Support Increases Creativity: Experimental Evidence.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Trial
- Cultural Engagement and Hospital-Treated Mental Disorders in Older Adults.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Rethinking the Prevention of Cognitive Decline in Healthy Older Adults: The Motor-Cognitive Active Gamified Immersive Cultural (MAGIC) Exergames.JMIR aging · 2026Article
- Patterns of Social Engagement and Associations with Depression, Loneliness and Stigma in People Living with HIV.AIDS and behavior · 2026Article
- Behavioral Phenotyping of Arts Engagement Using 20 Years of the American Time Use Survey.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Article
- Cultural Engagement Is Related to Decelerated Physiological Age: Doubly Robust Estimations in a National Cohort Study.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Article
- Associations of Place-based Social Determinants of Health with Biomarkers of Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias.Alzheimer's & dementia. Behavior & socioeconomics of aging · 2025Article
- Understanding Links between Race/Ethnicity and Health: Does Participation in the Musical Arts Matter?Psychology of aesthetics, creativity, and the arts · 2025Article
- Longitudinal Associations Between Cultural Engagement and Mental and Social Well-Being: A Fixed-Effects Analysis of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025Article
- Association of changes in overall and specific leisure activities with long-term all-cause mortality in older adults: a nationwide cohort study.Journal of global health · 2025Article
- Effects of different types of leisure activities on working memory across the adult lifespan.Psychological research · 2024Article
- Neighborhood environment and quality of life of older adults in eastern Nepal: findings from a cross-sectional study.BMC geriatrics · 2024Article
- Leisure engagement in older age is related to objective and subjective experiences of aging.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Participatory and Receptive Arts Engagement in Older Adults: Associations with Cognition Over a Seven-Year Period.Creativity research journal · 2024Article
- Receptive and participatory arts engagement and subsequent healthy aging: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2023Article
- Associations between sporting physical activity and cognition in mid and later-life: Evidence from two cohorts.Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
There is increasing evidence that leading an active, socially engaged lifestyle might protect against cognitive decline. The arts have been proposed as potentially beneficial activities due to their combination of cognitive complexity and mental creativity. Yet it remains uncertain which types of arts engagement and what level of engagement is required for potential benefits to accrue. This study therefore explored the association between three types of cultural engagement (visiting museums/galleries/exhibitions, going to the theatre/concert/opera and going to the cinema) and change in cognitive function over 10 years amongst adults aged over 52. Our participants (n = 3,445), drawn from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, were assessed in 2004/5 and 2014/15. We measured memory and semantic fluency at baseline and follow-up, analysing results using ordinary least squares regression models. Independent of demographic, health and social confounders, visiting museums/galleries/exhibitions and going to the theatre/concert/opera were associated with a lesser decline in cognitive function. Sensitivity analyses confirmed effects were unaffected by considerations of mobility or dementia diagnoses. However, going to the cinema was found to hold little effect for cognitive preservation. Overall, our results suggest that more frequent cultural engagement is associated with more marked effects, but even annual engagement may be protective.
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