A recent 2026 study published in the Innovation in Aging journal by Daisy Fancourt, PhD, Lehané Masebo, MSc, Saoirse Finn, PhD, Hei Wan Mak, PhD, and Feifei Bu, PhD provides the first evidence that arts and culture engagement is associated with a slower pace of biological aging.

Using data from 3,556 adults in the 2010-2012 UK Household Longitudinal Study, epigenetic (biological aging) clocks, and regression techniques, the study found that arts and culture engagement was related to slower biological aging in 3 of the 7 measured epigenetic clocks, with a relationship comparable in magnitude to that between physical activity and slower biological aging.