We’ve all heard that seeing live music is good for your health, but according to some research, it might just keep you alive. Swedish scientists conducted a study in the early ’80s into the ’90s using a sample size of 15,198 people aged 16-74 years old to see what the effects of going to cultural events were on their lives.
The events that were included in the study ranged from attending a movie to going to the theater, concert or live music, museum, art exhibition, sermon, or sporting events as a spectator. So, they might not all be specifically about seeing live music, but it’s definitely included in the list, so let’s focus on that.
Out of the approved participants, 6,301 men and 6,374 women were followed up with and 533 men and 314 women died. The group found that there was a relative risk of 1.57 with eight variables controlled for people who rarely attended events compared with those attending most often.
Any relative risk scale greater than 1 means that it’s more likely than not to occur. So, a 1.57 may not seem like a big deal, but it means that people who go to more cultural events are less likely to die. The study was conducted over almost ten years and it proves that heading out to cultural events will make you live longer. A surprising piece of the puzzle is deciding how many events are needed to affect the lifeline. The top tier group in this study was hitting 80+ events a year, or about once every four days. Are you willing to put that kind of time in for your health?
No matter how you look at it, you now have the best reasoning on how and why you need to hit up a concert as soon as possible. Who would ever question heading out to see your favorite band if you backed it up with, “You know, not seeing music may just kill you? That’s science.”
