Media release

From: Springer Nature

Ageing: Engaging in hobbies associated with better mental wellbeing in people over 65 (N&V)

People over 65 years of age who participate in hobby activities report improved health and mental wellbeing relative to that of those without a hobby, according to a study published in Nature Medicine. The findings are based on a meta-analysis of 5 longitudinal studies examining hobby engagement in 93,263 people from 16 countries.

Hobbies are activities that people engage in during their leisure time for pleasure, and previous studies have shown that such activities reduce loneliness and have protective associations with depressive symptoms. However, those findings were based predominately on single-country analyses, and it is unclear whether they would be consistent across different countries and cultural settings.

Daisy Fancourt and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis of five longitudinal studies investigating hobby engagement. They limited their analysis to studies with participants over 65 years of age, and investigated the responses of 93,263 participants from 16 countries, including the USA, China, Japan and several European countries. The average age of participants was between 71.7 and 75.9 years. The authors found that for people over 65 years of age, engaging in a hobby activity was associated with better self-reported health, higher life satisfaction, higher level of happiness, and fewer depressive symptoms than not engaging in a hobby. The consistency of these results remained after adjustment for other factors, such as partnership status, employment and household income. Countries with a high world happiness index score and life expectancy, such as Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland, also had high hobby engagement, but overall, the association between hobby engagement and mental wellbeing was relatively universal across countries, the authors note.

The authors highlight that their results are based on observations and do not demonstrate causality. However, they suggest their findings could have implications for the development of schemes for improving access to hobbies across ages and countries to enhance healthy ageing experiences and mental wellbeing among ageing people.