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Arts and cultural engagement has the potential to reduce social deficits such as loneliness and social isolation. However, as most evidence is from Western countries, less is known whether the protective association of engagement with social deficits can also be seen in different cultural settings such as Asia. We explored the associations of arts and cultural engagement, focusing on engagement continuity and type, with loneliness and social isolation among older adults in Japan, one of the fastest-ageing countries. This three-year longitudinal study involved 4,383 individuals (mean age = 74.3 years; 51.3% women) from the Japan Gerontological Evaluative Study 2019; 2022 waves. To assess engagement continuity, respondents were categorised into four groups: none, decreasing, increasing and sustained engagement. A latent class analysis identified four classes of engagement type: low, receptive, creative and diverse engagement. Loneliness and social isolation were measured using the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) 3-Item Loneliness Scale (range: 3-9) and the Social Isolation Index (range: 0-5), respectively. We applied ordinary least squares regressions to investigate the associations between engagement and the outcomes. Regarding engagement continuity, those who increased or sustained their engagement across waves reported lower loneliness compared with those who did not engage (increased: coef. = -0.22, 95% confidential interval [CI] = -0.41, -0.04; sustained: coef. = -0.26, 95% CI = -0.36, -0.16). Individuals who sustained their engagement also reported lower social isolation (coef. = -0.18, 95% CI = -0.27, -0.09). Regarding engagement type, engaging in diverse activities was associated with lower loneliness compared to low engagement (coef. = -0.34, 95% CI = -0.59, -0.10), while creative and diverse engagement were associated with lower social isolation (creative: coef. = -0.13, 95% CI = -0.22, -0.04; diverse: coef. = -0.33, 95% CI = -0.54, -0.12). These findings suggest that offering a diversity of creative arts and cultural activities and supporting sustainable engagement of older adults may help alleviate their social deficits., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Rationale: Arts engagement is associated with prolonged longevity, but it remains unclear whether it is also associated with increases in the portion of people's lives for which they remain healthy. We investigated whether receptive and participatory arts engagement were associated with healthy aging two and four years later., Method: We included 1269 older adults from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a longitudinal study of individuals aged 50 and above in the United States. Participants who completed the HRS 2014 Culture and the Arts Module and who were alive in 2016 and 2018 were eligible. We measured the number of participatory arts activities engaged in (e.g., crafts, dancing) and frequency of receptive arts engagement (e.g., going to a gallery or performance) in the past year. Healthy aging was a binary outcome, conceptualized as no major chronic diseases, no cognitive impairment, good physical functioning, and good mental health., Results: In logistic regression models, doing receptive arts once a month or more was associated with higher odds of healthy aging four years later compared to never engaging (odds ratio [OR] = 1.80, 95% CI = 1.10, 2.96). However, this evidence was attenuated after adjusting for demographic and socioeconomic covariates (adjusted OR = 1.44, 95% CI = 0.84, 2.46). The number of participatory arts activities engaged in was not associated with healthy aging two or four years later. In sensitivity analyses, there was some evidence that receptive engagement was associated specifically with higher odds of good physical functioning four years later., Conclusions: The lack of consistent associations between receptive and participatory arts engagement and healthy aging was unexpected given previous evidence for links between arts engagement and each of the four domains of healthy aging. Our findings highlight key methodological issues that should be explored in further research with larger nationally representative samples, longer follow-ups, and more detailed measures of arts engagement., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest No authors report any conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Background: Receptive cultural engagement (e.g. attending theaters and museums) can reduce depression in older adults. However, whether specific participatory leisure activities are associated with lower rates of depression remains unknown. We aimed to test whether engagement in a diverse range of leisure activities, all of which could involve artistic or creative elements, was associated with concurrent and subsequent depression., Methods: Using longitudinal data from 19,134 participants aged over 50 in the Health and Retirement Study, engagement in leisure activities was measured every four years, and depression every two years, between 2008 and 2016. Leisure activities included: reading books, magazines, or newspapers; writing; baking/cooking something special; making clothes, knitting, or embroidery (sewing); working on hobbies/projects; going to sport, social, or other clubs; and attending non-religious organization meetings. A score of three or more on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale indicated depression. We fitted population-averaged panel data models using generalized estimating equations with a logit link., Results: Engaging in some leisure activities, such as clubs, hobbies/projects, and baking/cooking was associated with reduced depression, independent of confounders. Concurrently, spending time on hobbies/projects (monthly OR = 0.80, 95% CI = 0.72-0.88; weekly OR = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.73-0.89) and clubs (monthly OR = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.77-0.94; weekly OR = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.69-0.88) was associated with lower odds of depression versus not engaging. Longitudinally, the odds of depression two years later were reduced amongst people engaging in weekly baking/cooking (OR = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.75-0.95), hobbies (OR = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.71-0.92), and clubs (OR = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.71-0.94). Writing, reading, sewing, and attending non-religious organizations were not consistently associated with depression., Conclusions: Engagement in some leisure activities is associated with reduced odds of depression. We should consider how older adults can be supported to actively participate in leisure activities as health-promoting behaviors., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)