Musical activity in a subsample of the German National Cohort study

Abstract

Musical activities (MA) such as singing, playing instruments, and listening to music may be associated with health benefits. However, evidence from epidemiological studies is still limited. This study aims at describing the relation between MA and both sociodemographic and health-related factors in a cross-sectional approach. A total of 6717 adults (50.3% women, 49.7% men, median age: 51 years (IQR 43-60) were recruited from the study center Berlin-Mitte of the German National Cohort (NAKO), a population-based prospective study. This study is based on a sample randomly selected from the population registry of Berlin, Germany, aged 20 to 69 years. 53% of the participants had been musically active at least once in their life (56.1% women, 43.9% men). Playing keyboard instruments (30%) and singing (21%) were the most frequent MA. Participants listened to music in median 90 min per day (IQR 30.0-150.0). Musically active individuals were more likely to have a higher education, higher alcohol consumption, were less likely to be physically active, and had a lower BMI compared to musically inactive individuals. This large population-based study offers a comprehensive description of demographic, health, and lifestyle characteristics associated with MA. Our findings may aid in assessing long-term health consequences of MA.

Figure 1

Percentage of musical activity across different life stages (musically active study population n = 3512). Results are given for musically active persons (n = 3512) only, musically inactive persons are not considered (n = 3109). Blue boxes display participants who were musically active in the respective life stages. Red boxes display participants who were not musically active in the respective life stages. Blue- or red-fading streams indicate changes of musical activity between different life spans of participants. A stream from blue to red indicates a change from a musically active to a musically inactive life stage. A stream from red to blue indicates a change from a musically inactive to musically active life stage. Grey-fading streams display an age restriction of study participants which were younger than the considered life stage.

Figure 2

Main instruments of musically active participants (n = 3409).

Figure 3

Percentage rates of music genres^a most often indicated as favorites (n = 6576, missing information n = 141). ^aList of music genres predefined in the MusA Questionnaire.