Hobby engagement and all-cause and cause-specific mortality risk among people aged 50 years and older in 19 countries

TL;DR

Engaging in hobbies is linked to lower mortality risk in older adults across 19 countries, with benefits varying by region and type of disease.

Contribution

This study is the first to examine the protective effects of hobby engagement on mortality risk at a multinational level.

Findings

Hobby engagement was associated with a 29% reduction in all-cause mortality risk across 19 countries.

Region-specific protective effects were observed, including reduced cardiovascular and respiratory mortality in Europe.

Initiating and sustaining hobby engagement reduced mortality risk, while cessation eliminated these benefits.

Abstract

Global population ageing necessitates identifying modifiable factors for healthy longevity. Hobby engagement emerges as a promising yet unexplored factor; evidence of its protective effects on all-cause and cause-specific mortality risk has never been examined at a multinational level.

We investigated hobby engagement and mortality risk among 79 464 adults aged ≥50 across 19 countries using harmonised longitudinal ageing cohorts. Cox proportional hazards models examined associations between hobby engagement and all-cause mortality. Competing risk models assessed cause-specific mortality. Marginal structural models evaluated the impact of change patterns in hobby engagement over time.

Hobby engagement was associated with a 29% reduction in all-cause mortality risk across 19 countries (pooled hazard ratio (HR) = 0.71; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.67, 0.75). Population attributable fractions ranged from 3.03% (in Denmark) to 23.56% (in China), with potential gains in life expectancy from 0.06 years (in China) to 1.02 years (in Sweden) over five years. Region-specific protective effects emerged: reduced mortality from endocrine/metabolic (subhazard ratio (SHR) = 0.31) and neurological conditions (SHR = 0.51) in the USA; cardiovascular mortality (SHR = 0.56) in England; and heart attack (SHR = 0.77), stroke (SHR = 0.62), other cardiovascular-related illnesses (SHR = 0.82), and respiratory disease (SHR = 0.68) in Europe. Hobby engagement patterns varied dramatically across countries, from predominant non-engagement in China (65.1%) to high sustained engagement in Northern Europe (>90%). Both initiating (pooled HR = 0.62) and sustaining (pooled HR = 0.45) hobby engagement were associated with a reduction in mortality risk compared to sustained non-engagement, while cessation eliminated these protective associations (pooled HR = 0.96; 95% CI = 0.88, 1.04). Benefits were more pronounced among adults aged ≥65 and married individuals.

Hobby engagement is a potentially universal, modifiable factor for promoting global healthy longevity. Public health strategies prioritising initiating and maintaining hobby engagement could yield substantial survival benefits, particularly in countries with predominant non-engagement patterns and high preventable mortality.

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