This week, researchers from Norway have reported that people who
take part in or attend ‘cultural’ activities tend to have better
physical and mental health. And cultural activities are defined
as creative – such as playing music or drawing; and they’re
defined as receptive – such as going to the theatre, a museum
and watching sport. Publishing in the Journal of Epidemiology
and Community Health, Koenraad Cuypers and his team sent surveys
to tens of thousands of people in a rural region of Norway
asking questions about their activities, happiness and perceived
health. The researchers then took the results, ran some
statistical tests and found this association between cultural
activities and health. Cuypers, who’s from the Norwegian
University of Science and Technology, found that it was
especially men in whom this relationship was most apparent. More
than females, males reported higher levels of satisfaction,
happiness and better perceived health if they took part in the
receptive activities such as watching