Association between attending cultural events and all-cause mortality: a longitudinal study with three measurements (1982-2017)

OBJECTIVES: To examine the association between cultural attendance and all-cause mortality.

DESIGN: A longitudinal cohort study over 36 years (1982-2017) with three 8-year interval measurements of exposure (1982/1983, 1990/1991 and 1998/1999) to cultural attendance and a follow-up period to 31 December 2017.

SETTING: Sweden.

PARTICIPANTS: The study included 3311 randomly selected individuals from the Swedish population with complete data for all three measurements.

PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS: All-cause mortality during the study period in relation to level of cultural attendance. Cox regression models with time-varying covariates were used to estimate HRs adjusted for potential confounders.

RESULTS: The HRs of cultural attendance in the lowest and middle levels compared with the highest level (reference; HR=1) were 1.63 (95% CI 1.34 to 2.00) and 1.25 (95% CI 1.03 to 1.51), respectively.

CONCLUSION: Attending cultural events has a suggested gradient, the lesser cultural exposure the higher all-cause mortality during the follow-up.