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The arts for disease prevention and health promotion: a systematic review

Nature Medicine volume 31, pages 3907–3916 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Differences in risk factor exposure and access to prevention resources have led to unequal health outcomes for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) globally. Recent studies elucidate the health benefits of arts participation, but no systematic reviews have focused on NCD prevention and health promotion. Here we share results of a mixed-methods systematic review that included 95 studies of arts programs, practices and activities, addressing NCD risk factors across 27 countries. We found that most reported outcomes were related to physical inactivity, unhealthy diets, mental health, and systemic, structural and social drivers of health. Our findings suggest that the arts may support NCDs prevention and health promotion by generating cultural relevance, providing opportunities for increased physical activity and social connectedness and by helping to identify and address systemic, structural and social forces contributing to health disparities and inequities.

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Fig. 1: Systematic review flow diagram.

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Data availability

Primary extracted data for the included studies referenced in this article are available in Supplementary Note 3. All data are available on figshare.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the State of Florida Division of Arts and Culture (award 24.c.ne.900.834 and 25.c.ne.900.921 to J.S.) and by a subaward from New York University (award RB678-06 to J.S.). The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the University of Florida’s Center for Arts in Medicine’s Interdisciplinary Research Lab, notably G. Hammond, Y. Chen and A. Colverson for assistance with screening, and T. Guetterman (University of Michigan) for review of the data integration. The study funders had no role in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation or writing of the report. The authors alone are responsible for the views expressed in this article and they do not necessarily represent the views, decisions or policies of the institutions with which they are affiliated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Arts in Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Jill Sonke, Jennifer Baxley Lee, Virginia Pesata, Seher Akram & Tasha Golden

  2. Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Michael Koon Boon Tan

  3. Health Science Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Jane Morgan-Daniel & Courtney Pyche

  4. College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria

    Sanmi Oduntan

  5. University of Malawi, Malawi, and University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland

    Sharifa Abdulla

  6. Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care, University College London, London, United Kingdom

    Daisy Fancourt

  7. Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health & Human Longevity Science, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA

    Michael Pratt

  8. Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    J. Jaime Miranda

  9. World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland

    Kremlin Wickramasinghe

  10. World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe; Jameel Arts & Health Lab, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Nils Fietje

  11. Department of Music and Performing Arts, New York University; Jameel Arts & Health Lab, New York City, NY, USA

    Nisha Sajnani

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Contributions

J.S., D.F., N.S. and K.W. conceived the project. J.S., M.K.B.T., J.B.L., V.P., J.M.-D., M.P. and D.F. designed the study and developed the methodology (with review by all authors). J.S., J.B.L., M.K.B.T., T.G., S. Akram, S. Abdulla, C.P., S.O., J.M.-D. and V.P. conducted the search. Specifically, J.S., M.K.B.T., S.O., S. Akram, S. Abdulla, V.P. and J.B.L. contributed to data screening and extraction, with support from G. Hammond, Y. Chen and A. Colverson. J.S., M.K.B.T., J.B.L., T.G., V.P., S.O., S. Akram and S. Abdulla conducted the data analysis. J.S., M.K.B.T., J.B.L., V.P., J.M.-D., S. Akram and D.F. developed the first draft of the manuscript. J.S., J.B.L., M.K.B.T., D.F., S.A., J.J.M., N.S., M.P., C.P., J.M.-D., V.P., K.W. and J.J.M. contributed to reviewing and editing the manuscript. J.M.-D., C.P., S.O. and J.B.L. managed citations. All authors approved the final manuscript. J.S. supervised the study and secured funding.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jill Sonke.

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Competing interests

N.S. is employed by NYU and serves as the principal investigator on the primary award associated with the subaward provided for this project by NYU. The other authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Medicine thanks Lana Grasser, Quinette Louw and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Handling Editor: Liam Messin, in collaboration with the Nature Medicine team.

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Extended data

Extended Data Table 1 Eligibility criteria and definitions used
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Extended Data Table 2 Study designs and number of studies for each
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Extended Data Table 3 Modes and forms of arts engagement
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Extended Data Table 4 Quality appraisal criteria and scores
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Extended Data Table 5 Joint display
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Extended Data Table 6 Databases searched
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Extended Data Table 7 PICOS framework
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Supplementary information

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Sonke, J., Tan, M.K.B., Lee, J.B. et al. The arts for disease prevention and health promotion: a systematic review. Nat Med 31, 3907–3916 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-025-03962-7

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