Artistic pursuits could help slow down aging, and there's science behind it

• New research from the United Kingdom shows that people who engage in artistic pursuits of various kinds experience a slower pace of aging.
• The study even suggests that the positive effect of having an active cultural life is akin to that of regular exercise.
• While this study does not prove a causal relationship, the researchers believe that artistic and creative pursuits can have beneficial effects on many aspects of health, including lowering inflammation and protecting brain health.

Participating in creative pursuits and engaging with arts and culture is good for the soul but could it also help the body stay in shape? That seems to be what a new study from University College London (UCL) in the United Kingdom is suggesting.

The study — whose findings appear in the journal Innovation in Aging — has found an association between engagement with arts and culture and a slower pace of biological aging.

Other studies have connected creativity with better cognitive health. For instance, research published in Nature Communications in October 2025 found that activities such as dancing and engaging with the visual arts could help the brain stay younger for longer.

It may be, however, that creative and artistic interests and activities may help the entire body maintain its youthfulness in some respect.

Speaking to GMHCN, one of the study authors, Feifei Bu, PhD, principal research fellow in statistics/epidemiology within the Social Biobehavioural Research Group in the Department of Behavioural Science and Health at UCL, said that the research team was keenly interested in exploring just how artistic interest can actually shape our health throughout our lives.

“Arts and cultural engagement is increasingly seen as a health behaviour,” Bu suggested. “Many studies have linked it to health outcomes such as better cognition, lower depressive symptoms, and improved physical health.”

“However, very little research has examined whether its benefits are biologically embedded — so that’s what we wanted to explore in this study,” she told GMHCN.

In their study, the UCL researchers assessed survey responses regarding their engagement in arts and culture, as well as blood test results provided by 3,556 participants with a mean age of about 52 years. A little more than half of the participants were female, and the rest male.

The data came came from the UK Household Longitudinal Study.

In brief, the researchers wanted to see how engagement in the arts and culture would correlate with epigenetic aging — changes to DNA that influence the rate of biological aging.

They used no fewer than 7 epigenetic clocks in their research, which are tools for assessing age-related DNA changes.

Two of the younger-generation epigenetic clocks used, in particular — called DunedinPoAm and DunedinPACE — help provide an estimate of the pace at which a person is aging. The faster the pace of aging, the more likely it is that a person also has a higher risk of developing age-related conditions.

Another epigenetic clock, called PhenoAge, helped the researchers estimate individuals’ biological ages.

Overall, tests conducted using the three next-gen epigenetic clocks suggested that the more people engaged in artistic and cultural activities, and the wider the breadth of their cultural-artistic interests, the slower their pace of aging, and the younger their estimated biological age.

According to DunedinPACE data, engaging in artistic pursuits at least 3 times a year was linked to a 2% slower aging pace, and engaging in creative pursuits on a monthly basis was linked to a 3% slower aging pace compared to engaging with arts less than 3 times a year.

Those who pursued cultural activities on a weekly had a 4% slower aging rate compared to those who pursued such activities less than 3 times a year.

Notably, these positive associations appeared to be on a par with the beneficial effects of exercise on aging, as the researchers also found that individuals who exercised on a weekly basis had a similarly slower aging pace.

These associations persisted with regard to biological age: according to PhenoAge tests, participants who engaged in artistic pursuits on a weekly basis or more frequently were 1 year younger on average compared to those who rarely pursued creative or cultural activities.

The researchers noted a similar association between weekly or more frequent exercise and biological age.

These associations were strongest for participants 40 years of age or older, and persisted even after the researchers accounted for confounding factors including body mass index (BMI), smoking status, education, and income level.

The older epigenetic clocks did not reveal any associations between more frequent cultural engagement and slower aging pace, or between exercise and and aging pace. The study authors believe this may be because the older generation of epigenetic clocks are less sensitive predictors of age-related changes.

Commenting on this study, Şebnem Ünlüişler, Chief Longevity Officer and genetic engineer at the London Regenerative Institute, in the United Kingdom, who was not involved in the research, said she was heartened by the findings:

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