Arts programs can help prevent heart disease, diabetes, and other leading causes of deaths, large study finds

(Press-News.org) Art isn’t just for stages and studios. It can be a powerful public health resource.

That’s the takeaway from a new international study, commissioned by the Jameel Arts and Health Lab, which examined nearly 100 research projects from 27 countries to consider how arts programs, such as music, dance, theater, storytelling and other creative and cultural activities, can help prevent some of the world’s biggest killers: heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and other non-communicable diseases, which account for 74% of preventable deaths worldwide.

The release of these findings comes just one week before an international meeting convened by the World Health Organization dedicated to the prevention of non-communicable diseases. The study adds timely evidence to inform global commitments around disease prevention, showcasing how the arts are a public health resource and have the potential to strengthen health care systems.

“We don’t want to just treat these diseases, we want to prevent them,” said Jill Sonke, Ph.D., director of research initiatives in the UF Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida, affiliated researcher with the Jameel Arts and Health Lab, and lead author of the new study. “We would love to see funding and interventions move upstream from treatment toward prevention, and the arts should be part of that prevention strategy, because they really can help.”

Sonke and Michael Tan, Ph.D., dean of research and knowledge exchange at the University of the Arts Singapore, co-led an international group of researchers that analyzed 95 studies representing over 230,000 participants, on the health benefits of arts programs. Their findings were published Sept. 18 in Nature Medicine. The study was supported in part by the State of Florida Division of Arts and Culture and New York University.

“If we are serious about reducing the global burden of non-communicable diseases, we must treat the arts as essential to public health infrastructure,” said Nisha Sajnani, Ph.D., professor at NYU Steinhardt and co-director of the Jameel Arts and Health Lab and co-author on the study. “Arts and cultural activities provide cost-effective and scalable tools for prevention that, when embedded in health promotion and grounded in community partnership, can expand access, close equity gaps and strengthen the uptake of healthy behaviors.” 

The researchers found that arts-based programs, whether a community play about healthy eating, a dance group that boosts physical activity or a gardening project that builds social connections, can make health messages more engaging, more memorable and more relevant to people’s lives.

Those connections, the study found, may be just as important as the health behaviors themselves. Health promotion campaigns often struggle to get people to participate long enough to make a difference. But when physical activity or health education is tied to a collective, enjoyable, creative experience, the chances of people showing up, and sticking around, can increase dramatically.

The study also found that arts programs can help improve the cultural relevance of disease prevention programs in useful ways. For example, community gardening or cultural dance programs that reflect local cultures and practices can enhance access, increase uptake of health information, encourage behavior change and boost participation.

There is still more to learn, the researchers said. Most studies have been done in high-income countries, and few projects track whether health benefits last over the long term. Still, the findings suggest that when it comes to promoting health and preventing disease, the arts could be a vital part of the toolkit.

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