When the Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT) began asking questions about cultural participation in 2006, it wasn’t a given that the two were connected. But data now shows a clear link between engagement with the arts and overall well-being.
In Brief
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HUNT included questions about cultural participation in 2006.
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Data from HUNT shows that cultural participation leads to better health and lower mortality.
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The effect of cultural participation on health and life expectancy is comparable to that of smoking, high cholesterol, and physical inactivity.
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Around the turn of the millennium, when HUNT initiated a dialogue between medical and cultural communities, there was some skepticism. Many doctors were still primarily focused on risk factors, biological data, and methodology, and were doubtful that culture and health were worth dedicating time to. Similar reservations existed within cultural circles, largely due to the belief that art possesses intrinsic value independent of any potential health benefits.
However, understanding that new knowledge often emerges at the intersection of traditional fields has grown. This led to the establishment of the National Competence Centre for Culture, Health and Care in Levanger, with HUNT as a partner.
The initial results from HUNT3 garnered international attention. The data revealed that individuals actively involved in the arts reported a better perception of their own health, greater life satisfaction, and lower levels of anxiety and depression. Similar data was also collected in HUNT4. In recent years, we’ve been able to examine mortality rates by tracking individuals with different lifestyles over time. Bente Løkken’s doctoral research demonstrates that people active in the arts have significantly lower mortality rates, whether they engage in creative activities or participate as audience members. While we may not have measured all possible alternative variables, the figures are adjusted for everything that could obviously provide other explanations.
– My life isn’t a romantic comedy
It appears that what people do in their daily lives—the extent to which they participate in cultural life and engage in social interaction—impacts health and life expectancy to the same degree as more well-known risk factors like smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and physical inactivity. This knowledge also underpins the public health campaign ABC for Good Mental Health: Do something active – Do something together – Do something meaningful. It has been shown that social interaction and engaging in meaningful activities can even prevent dementia.
The interplay between culture and health has also inspired the book Blood Drop Tales and Ingrid Storholmen’s decade-long artistic engagement with uncovering the stories behind the HUNT data. What do people really mean when they say their health is poor? What lies behind reports of good lifestyle satisfaction? What do social relationships, having someone to talk to, conflicts, and sexuality mean for physical and mental health? The book has been both award-winning and critically acclaimed. No population health survey in the world has comparable public support, nor has any received similar attention from an artist, as far as we understand.
There is considerable excitement surrounding both her next book about HUNT, which will focus on youth, and how the first book will be expressed on a theater stage. The novel Blood Drop Tales and Storholmen’s remarkable creativity and originality are also the basis for the play now being staged at Trøndelag Theatre.
Nearly 250,000 people from Trøndelag have participated in HUNT, and many will likely visit the theater now. It’s inspiring for all of us who have worked with, and researched, these Trøndelag blood drop tales for forty years.
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