Spending (slightly) less on health and more on the arts

doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7390.660/a

BMJ 2003;326:660 ( 22 March )

Letters

Spending (slightly) less on health and more on the arts

Robust research is needed

Public should decide

Healthcare budgets can include money for arts

Robust research is needed

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Smith raises some important issues about the role of arts in our society and on the relative value we attach to artsand health, as reflected in their budgets.¹ Perhaps a moveto divert some modest funding from the health budget into thearts might prove more popular if some positive health benefitcan be shown. But, despite the experiences of Simon Rattle (andany artist who has engaged with poverty and exclusion), the healthbenefits of the arts are not immediatelyobvious.

Although we might agree with Brown on bmj.com that the arts have positive effects in a hospital environment, there is a lackof robust evidence of the arts providing such benefits in otherareas. ² ³

The potential health benefits of participating in the arts to individual people and to the community have received widespreadattention in recent years. The arts have been used as a medium. . . [Full text of this article]