This evidence summary draws together literature on the role of arts in improving health and wellbeing. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport commissioned this report by Dr Daisy Fancourt, University College London, in response to the 2019 World Health Organisation report entitled “What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and wellbeing?”

The report focuses on how arts engagement can impact on social outcomes, youth development, and the prevention of mental and physical illness.

It also considers how Social Prescribing programmes that have used arts interventions can impact the above three outcomes. The evidence summary assesses the type and quality of evidence available for each outcome.

This report was commissioned prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and completed in March 2020.

Our findings show promising ‘grade B’ evidence for the following outcomes, suggesting that this evidence can be trusted to guide policy in most situations:

• The use of the arts (other than reading) to support child social development
• The use of the arts to support wellbeing in children and young people
• The use of the arts to support cognition in older age

Our findings show weaker ‘grade C and D’ evidence for the following outcomes. This is largely due to insufficient research to date but suggests that caution should be taken if developing policy in these areas and more work is needed:

• The use of the arts to reduce social inequalities
• The use of the arts to improve educational attainment
• The use of the arts to manage or treat mental illness (e.g. depression and anxiety) in children and young people
• The use of the arts to prevent mental illness (e.g. depression and anxiety) in adults
• The use of the arts to prevent further cognitive decline in adults with cognitive impairments
• The use of the arts to reduce non-communicable disease incidence

Read more and download the full report...

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