Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37696932›Full record

SynthesisNature medicine2023

Hobby engagement and mental wellbeing among people aged 65 years and older in 16 countries.

Hei Wan Mak, Taiji Noguchi, Jessica K Bone, Jacques Wels, Qian Gao, Katsunori Kondo, Tami Saito, Daisy Fancourt

Abstract readMeta-Analysis
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Nature medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
30citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

30 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Hei Wan MakDepartment of Behavioural Science and Health, Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care, University College London, London, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2013-1644
Taiji NoguchiDepartment of Social Science, Center for Gerontology and Social Science, Research Institute, National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Obu, Japan.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9165-5501
Jessica K BoneDepartment of Behavioural Science and Health, Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care, University College London, London, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6019-7066
Jacques WelsMRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, University College London, London, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9292-917X
Qian GaoDepartment of Behavioural Science and Health, Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care, University College London, London, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6906-1771
Katsunori KondoDepartment of Social Preventive Medical Sciences, Center for Preventive Medical Sciences, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan.
Tami SaitoDepartment of Social Science, Center for Gerontology and Social Science, Research Institute, National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Obu, Japan.
Daisy FancourtDepartment of Behavioural Science and Health, Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care, University College London, London, UK. d.fancourt@ucl.ac.uk.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6952-334X

Funding

Wellcome Trust 205407/Z/16/Z
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Growing aging populations pose a threat to global health because of the social and psychological challenges they experience. To mitigate this, many countries promote hobby engagement to support and improve mental health. Yet, it remains unclear whether there is consistency in benefits across different national settings. We harmonized measures of hobby engagement and multiple aspects of mental wellbeing across 16 nations represented in five longitudinal studies (N = 93,263). Prevalence of hobby engagement varied substantially across countries, from 51.0% of Spanish respondents to 96.0% of Danish respondents. Fixed effects models and multinational meta-analyses were applied to compare the longitudinal associations between hobbies and mental wellbeing. Independent of confounders, having a hobby was associated with fewer depressive symptoms (pooled coefficient = -0.10; 95% confidence intervals (CI) = -0.13, -0.07), and higher levels of self-reported health (pooled coefficient = 0.06; 95% CI = 0.03, 0.08), happiness (pooled coefficient = 0.09; 95% CI = 0.06, 0.13) and life satisfaction (pooled coefficient = 0.10; 95% CI = 0.08, 0.12). Further analyses suggested a temporal relationship. The strength of these associations, and prevalence of hobby engagement, were correlated with macrolevel factors such as life expectancy and national happiness levels but overall, little variance in findings was explained by country-level factors (<9%). Given the relative universality of findings, ensuring equality in hobby engagement within and between countries should be a priority for promoting healthy aging.

Indexed as

HobbiesMental HealthAgedAgingHumansLife ExpectancySelf Report

Identifiers

PMID37696932
PMCPMC10504079

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.