Older adults who regularly visited cinemas, museums, theaters, and concerts had measurably younger physiological age than those who rarely participated in cultural activities, according to a study published July 14, 2026, in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. The difference between the most frequent and least frequent cultural attendees amounted to approximately three years of biological age, and it held up after the researchers used a statistical technique specifically designed to account for hidden differences between people.
The study was led by Yusuke Matsuyama, PhD, DDS, and colleagues at the Institute of Science Tokyo, drawing on data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, a long-running nationally representative cohort following adults aged 50 and older in England.
