The World Health Organization recently reviewed evidence that engaging in arts promotes health and wellbeing across the lifespan. Their report found that “over 3000 studies identified a major role for the arts in the prevention of ill health, promotion of health, and management and treatment of illness.”
Dr. Shreeniwas – Human Development and Family Studies Professor – recently won National Endowment for the Arts funding to see if a practice called social prescribing for the arts, or SPA, could be effective as part of the U.S. healthcare system, particularly for older adults.
Encouraging arts participation can work as a lower cost health intervention. It can improve a range of physical and mental health conditions.