Engaging with the arts can be beneficial for both mental and physical health.
This is a key conclusion of a new report from the World Health Organization that analyzed evidence from over 900 global publications.
It is being called the most comprehensive review of evidence on arts and health.
“Bringing art into people’s lives through activities including dancing, singing and going to museums and concerts offers an added dimension to how we can improve physical and mental health,” says Dr. Piroska Östlin, WHO's regional director for Europe.
“The examples cited in this groundbreaking WHO report show ways in which the arts can tackle wicked or complex health challenges, such as diabetes, obesity and mental ill health," says Östlin. "They consider health and well-being in a broader societal and community context, and offer solutions that common medical practice has so far been unable to address effectively.”
The report reviews arts activities that seek to promote health and prevent ill health, as well as manage and treat physical and mental illness and support end-of-life care.
The report says young children whose parents read to them before bed have longer night-time sleep and improved concentration at school. Among adolescents living in urban areas, drama-based peer education can support responsible decision-making, enhance well-being and reduce exposure to violence. Later in life, music can support cognition in people with dementia – singing, in particular, has been found to improve attention, episodic memory and executive function.
Other findings suggest:
- Listening to music or making art can reduce the side effects of cancer treatment, including drowsiness, lack of appetite, shortness of breath and nausea
- Arts activities in emergency settings, including music, crafts and clowning, can reduce anxiety, pain and blood pressure, particularly for children but also for their parents
- Dance can provide clinically meaningful improvements in motor scores for people with Parkinson’s disease.
The report says some arts interventions can be more cost-effective than more standard biomedical treatments. They can combine multiple health-promoting factors (such as physical activity and mental health support) and have a low risk of negative outcomes. Because arts interventions can be tailored to people from different cultural backgrounds, they also offer a route to engage minority or hard-to-reach groups.
Several countries are now looking to arts and social prescribing schemes, whereby primary-care doctors can refer their patients to arts activities.
The report urges decision-makers to:
- Ensure accessible arts-for-health programmes exist within communities
- Support arts and cultural organizations in making health and well-being part of their work
- Promote public awareness of the potential health benefits of arts engagement
- Include arts in the training of health-care professionals
- Introduce or strengthen referral mechanisms from health-care and social-care facilities
- Invest in more research.
The report reviewed the health benefits, either through active or passive participation, in five broad categories: performing arts (music, dance, singing, theatre and film); visual arts (crafts, design, painting and photography); literature (writing, reading and attending literary festivals); culture (going to museums, galleries, concerts and the theatre); and online arts (animations, digital arts and the like).
Source: World Health Organization
