A longitudinal study of the association between attending cultural events and coronary heart disease

BACKGROUND: The experiences of art and music are an essential part of human life and this study aimed to examine the longitudinal association between cultural participation and coronary heart disease.

METHODS: This was a longitudinal study on a randomly selected representative adult cohort (n = 3296) of the Swedish population. The study period was over 36 years (1982-2017) with three separate eight-year interval measurements of cultural exposure (for example, visiting theatres and museums) starting in 1982/83. The outcome was coronary heart disease during the study period. Marginal structural Cox models with inverse probability weighting were used to account for time-varying weights of the exposure and potential confounders during the follow-up. The associations were also examined through a time-varying Cox proportional hazard regression model.

RESULTS: Cultural participation shows a graded association, the higher the exposure the lower the risk of coronary heart disease; the hazard ratio was 0.66 (95% confidence interval, 0.50 to 0.86) for coronary heart disease in participants with the highest level of cultural exposure compared with the lowest level.

CONCLUSION: Although causality cannot be determined due to the remaining risk of residual confounding and bias, the use of marginal structural Cox models with inverse probability weighting strengthens the evidence for a potentially causal association with cardiovascular health, which warrants further studies.