Older adults who regularly attend theaters, museums, cinemas, and concerts have a measurably lower physiological age than those who rarely participate in cultural activities, according to new research published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health on July 14, 2026. The difference amounts to approximately three years of biological age, a gap that held up after researchers used a statistical technique to account for lifestyle factors and personal characteristics that remain constant over time.
The study, led by researchers at the Institute of Science Tokyo in Japan, examined 1,899 adults aged 50 and older from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, a long-running nationally representative cohort that follows older adults in England with repeated health and lifestyle assessments across years.
