IMPORTANT STUFF: Museum visitors ‘less likely to develop dementia’, claim researchers

It's interesting to know that regularly visiting museums is associated with a lower likelihood of developing dementia, according to new research from University College London (UCL).

the researchers analysed a decade’s worth of data from 4,000 people aged over 52 and found that in a given year up to ten out of every thousand who never visited museums developed dementia. This compares with up to three in a thousand of those who visited museums every few months or more.
The findings were presented by Dr. Daisy Fancourt, a research fellow at UCL, at a recent conference held by the charity 'Arts 4 Dementia'. Dr. Fancourt said her findings held true even when accounting for other factors such as the education or the wealth of participants.

Importantly, while loneliness has been identified as a risk factor for dementia, Dr. Fancourt stressed that her research found that the engagement with culture provided by museum visits was having this impact in itself, and not simply because it was likely to increase social interactions.