Arts and cultural engagement and subsequent social deficits among older adults: A three-year longitudinal study using the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study

Arts and cultural engagement has the potential to reduce social deficits such as loneliness and social isolation. However, as most evidence is from Western countries, less is known whether the protective association of engagement with social deficits can also be seen in different cultural settings such as Asia. We explored the associations of arts and cultural engagement, focusing on engagement continuity and type, with loneliness and social isolation among older adults in Japan, one of the fastest-ageing countries. This three-year longitudinal study involved 4,383 individuals (mean age = 74.3 years; 51.3% women) from the Japan Gerontological Evaluative Study 2019; 2022 waves. To assess engagement continuity, respondents were categorised into four groups: none, decreasing, increasing and sustained engagement. A latent class analysis identified four classes of engagement type: low, receptive, creative and diverse engagement. Loneliness and social isolation were measured using the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) 3-Item Loneliness Scale (range: 3–9) and the Social Isolation Index (range: 0–5), respectively. We applied ordinary least squares regressions to investigate the associations between engagement and the outcomes. Regarding engagement continuity, those who increased or sustained their engagement across waves reported lower loneliness compared with those who did not engage (increased: coef. = −0.22, 95% confidential interval [CI] = −0.41, −0.04; sustained: coef. = −0.26, 95% CI = −0.36, −0.16). Individuals who sustained their engagement also reported lower social isolation (coef. = −0.18, 95% CI = −0.27, −0.09). Regarding engagement type, engaging in diverse activities was associated with lower loneliness compared to low engagement (coef. = −0.34, 95% CI = −0.59, −0.10), while creative and diverse engagement were associated with lower social isolation (creative: coef. = −0.13, 95% CI = −0.22, −0.04; diverse: coef. = −0.33, 95% CI = −0.54, −0.12). These findings suggest that offering a diversity of creative arts and cultural activities and supporting sustainable engagement of older adults may help alleviate their social deficits.