"The genius of her approach is that she realised there was a goldmine of just such solid data waiting to be interrogated in the so-called cohort studies involving tens of thousands of people and extending over decades, which have been conducted in the UK as a function of epidemiological studies. They contain detailed medical information, including psychological data, as well as assessments of peoples' education, economic status, work and lifestyle."
"The American writer Mark Twain was fond of the saying, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics." When we hear statistics supposedly proving that the arts are good for our health, how do we know they are not unrepresentative numbers being quoted by the arts sector desperately pleading its case for more money? Daisy Fancourt, 35, is professor of psychobiology and epidemiology"
A researcher leveraged large UK epidemiological cohort studies with tens of thousands of participants and decades of follow-up to examine links between arts engagement and health. Cohorts include detailed medical and psychological data plus socioeconomic and lifestyle measures, and some contained items on arts participation. The approach used representative samples, adjustment for potential confounders, and longitudinal data to detect tendencies rather than short-term responses. One cohort, begun in 2002, invited 12,099 people born before 1952 to biennial questionnaires and medical tests and was used to analyse depression onset among 2,148 participants without recent depression.
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