How to find a hobby, which tracks with better moods in 16 countries

Key takeaways

• In a 2023 study of 93,263 adults aged 65 and older in 16 countries, people with hobbies reported fewer depressive symptoms and more happiness, better health and higher life satisfaction¹².
• In a Texas trial, older adults who spent three months learning demanding skills such as digital photography improved their memory, while groups that socialized or did easy tasks at home did not¹¹¹².
• Long-term English studies tie regular arts outings to less depression and a longer life, but measured factors such as thinking skills, social life and wealth explained about 42% of the link with death, and the rest is unproven⁵⁷.
• Creative hobbies brought more “flow,” the absorbed state where time slips away, than passive downtime did in a study of 100 workers⁹.
• Losing interest in hobbies you used to enjoy, for two weeks or more, is a recognized warning sign of depression, so talk to a clinician, and call or text 988 in a crisis¹⁴¹⁵.

Imagine being a beginner again for three months, at 15 hours a week. That was the assignment for 221 volunteers aged 60 to 90 in a Dallas experiment reported in 2013¹¹. Some were taught digital photography, editing software included. Others learned quilting on sewing machines run by computer¹¹.

A comparison group met to socialize, swap stories, play games and go on outings. Another stayed home with undemanding pastimes like music, videos and easy word puzzles¹¹.

Memory improved only among the people wrestling with hard new skills¹¹. The social and at-home groups kept busy too, but busy wasn’t the point. As lead researcher Denise Park of UT Dallas summed it up, what counted was doing something new to you that made your mind work¹¹.

A decade later, a far larger study suggested hobbies may matter for mood, too, in countries as different as Denmark and Japan¹. This guide covers what that research shows, where it’s still thin, and how to find a pastime that fits your energy, budget and life.

Hobbies track with better moods from Denmark to Japan

In 2023, a team led by Karen Mak and Daisy Fancourt at University College London published a hobby study in the journal Nature Medicine¹. They pooled five long-running studies of aging from England, Japan, the United States, China and 12 other European countries¹².

The combined group held 93,263 people aged 65 or older, followed for four to eight years¹². A hobby meant leisure done for pleasure: reading, gardening, games, arts and crafts, clubs and volunteering².

How common hobbies were depended on where people lived. About 51% of Spanish respondents had one, compared with 96% of Danes¹. In China, where the survey asked only about social hobbies, the figure was 37.6%².

Hobby-havers came out ahead on all four measures. Their depressive symptoms were lower, and their self-rated health, happiness and life satisfaction were higher¹. Mak said life satisfaction stood out most². Taking partners, jobs and household income into account didn’t erase the gap².

Where someone lived made little difference to the result: national differences accounted for under 9% of the variation¹. There was a twist, though. In nations where people live longer and rate themselves happier, hobbies were both more common and more closely tied to well-being².

Because the same people answered surveys again years later, the team could check timing. Having a hobby came before improvements in depressive symptoms, happiness and life satisfaction². That hints at cause and effect without proving it. Mak also pointed to theory suggesting the influence runs in both directions, since mentally healthier people may find it easier to start a pastime².

Wellcome, the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts, Belgium’s national science fund and Japanese government research programs helped pay for the work³. The authors concluded that fair access to hobbies, within and between countries, should be a priority for healthy aging¹.

The arts have the deepest research base, and a lively debate

The arts have a large research base of their own. In 2019, the World Health Organization’s European office published a review by Fancourt and Saoirse Finn of more than 900 publications⁴. Those included over 200 reviews that together covered more than 3,000 studies⁴.

The review sorted the arts into five areas: performing arts; visual arts, design and craft; literature; cultural visits, such as museums and concerts; and digital arts⁴. Topics ranged from group singing and drumming for people in mental distress to recorded music played for patients before surgery⁴.

The authors were frank that quality varied. Some findings came from small pilot projects, others from randomized trials, and some areas still needed confirmation⁴. Some large art therapy studies found no benefit, and music therapy results for psychosis hadn’t been consistently repeated⁴.

Two of Fancourt’s long-term studies of older English adults show both the promise and the problem.

• Depression. Among 2,148 adults free of depression at the start, those who went to museums, theater or the movies every few months had 32% lower odds of developing depression over 10 years. Going monthly or more went with 48% lower odds⁵.
• Death. Among 6,710 adults aged 50 and older followed for about 12 years, people who went to theater, concerts, museums or galleries every few months or more had a 31% lower risk of dying during the study. Once or twice a year went with a 14% lower risk⁷.

Now the fine print. In the mortality study, factors the team measured, such as thinking skills, social life, mobility and wealth, explained about 42% of the link⁷. More than half went unexplained, and the authors wrote that cause and effect can’t be assumed⁷.

Not everyone was convinced by the depression study, either. Commenting on a published summary of it, scientist David Colquhoun argued that people sliding toward depression may simply stop going out, which would make culture look protective⁶.

That debate is healthy. Both sides agree these studies show a link, and only trials can show what an activity itself does.

Flow: why a harder hobby can feel better than an easy evening

Psychologists use the word flow for an absorbing state in which you feel in control of a demanding task, lose track of time and forget yourself for a while⁹. The idea grew out of research by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and it tends to show up when a task is hard and your skills are up to it⁸⁹.

In 1989, he and a colleague had 78 working adults report what they were doing and feeling at random moments for a week⁸. Most flow moments happened on the job, not in free time⁸. Yet people felt more motivated during leisure⁸. Researchers call this mismatch the paradox of work⁹.

A 2014 study of 100 employees took a second look, using about 4,500 in-the-moment reports⁹. Creative pursuits scored highest for flow, followed by sports and exercise, both above paid work⁹. Passive leisure scored lowest of the main activity types⁹.

People did feel happier and less tense during both active and passive leisure than at work⁹. So rest is real and worth protecting. But a hobby that asks something of you offers a deeper absorption that easy downtime rarely does.

Serious and casual leisure both have a place

Leisure researcher Robert Stebbins, whose work on this topic dates to the 1970s, splits free time into two broad kinds¹⁰.

Casual leisure pays off right away and takes little or no training¹⁰. Serious leisure is the steady pursuit of an amateur, hobby or volunteer activity that’s substantial enough to build skill over years, almost like a second career¹⁰.

In his framework, a serious pastime asks you to push through frustrating stretches and put in real effort. In return, it offers skills that keep growing, rewards that last, a community with its own customs and, eventually, a piece of your identity¹⁰.

Neither kind of leisure wins on every count. A favorite show or a nap is how many people recover from a long day. But the Dallas trial and the flow research suggest that something you can get better at adds what easy rest can’t⁹¹¹.

This fits natural-health values well. Many people in this community already prize making things by hand, growing food, learning skills from elders and being part of a group. A hobby is a low-cost, low-risk way to live those values every week, with no pill involved.

Learning something hard may help an aging brain

The Dallas study, called the Synapse Project, was a true experiment: volunteers were assigned at random to demanding or easy activities¹². The learners improved on memory tests, with the clearest gains in the two groups that took on photography, alone or with quilting, and some benefits lasted up to a year¹¹¹². The National Institute on Aging paid for it¹¹.

The bigger picture on dementia comes from observational studies, which track what people do without assigning it. A large pooled analysis, published in Neurology in 2022, combined 38 studies. Together they tracked more than 2 million dementia-free adults for three years or longer, and about 74,700 of them went on to develop the disease¹³.

Overall, people with leisure pursuits were 17% less likely to be diagnosed¹³. The link was strongest for mind-stretching pastimes such as crafts, games, an instrument or a good book, at 23% lower risk. It was 17% for physical activities and just 7% for social ones¹³.

These numbers have real limits. Every activity was self-reported, and memory for how you spent your time is imperfect¹³. And as the 16-country team cautioned about its own work, the influence may run both ways: better health may lead to more hobbies, not only the reverse². Chinese science foundations and a Peking University–Baidu fund supported the review¹³.

So learning a challenging skill is a reasonable bet for your brain, backed by one good trial. Claims that a hobby will prevent dementia go beyond this evidence. Our article on dancing covers the research on dance and memory.

Screens aren’t automatically the problem

More hobbies happen on screens now: editing photos, learning chess online, composing music with an app. Is that a hobby or just more screen time?

The research doesn’t draw the line at the screen. The Neurology review counted using a computer and even watching TV among “mental” activities¹³. In the Dallas trial, the photography learners spent hours with editing software and improved, while the at-home group that listened to music, watched videos and did easy word games did not¹¹.

A better question than “screen or no screen” may be “passive or active.” In the flow study, creative pursuits ranked first and passive leisure ranked last⁹. For why long TV evenings in particular have drawn concern, see our article “Sitting isn’t the new smoking, but long TV evenings still carry risk.”

This is a quick test of our own. After an hour, did you make something, learn something or connect with someone? If yes, you were probably doing a hobby. If you mostly scrolled, you were resting, which has its place but isn’t the same thing.

Find your hobby: a four-factor finder and a four-week trial

Start with an honest look at your energy on an ordinary weeknight, not your best day. Then decide whether you want company, how much you can spend and how much of a stretch you want. This finder is our own; the examples are starting points, not prescriptions.

Your usual energy	Solo, low cost	With others, low cost	Bigger skill stretch
Low (end of a long day)	Reading, sketching, knitting, a jigsaw puzzle	A book club or a weekly card or board-game night	Fifteen minutes a day on a language or an instrument
Medium	Container gardening, baking bread, birdwatching from a window	A community choir or a craft circle	Photography with photo editing, basic woodworking
High	Hiking or cycling a new route each week	A dance class, a community garden, volunteering	Pottery, a team sport, carpentry lessons

Keep the cost down. Borrow before you buy. Check your public library’s calendar for free clubs, classes and lending programs, and your parks department or senior center for low-cost lessons. Used gear, swap groups and free online tutorials can cover most beginner needs.

The four-week “try it” plan

1. Week 1: sample. Try two options from the table for about 30 minutes each. Afterward, rate how absorbed you felt from 0 to 10.
2. Week 2: Pick one. Schedule three sessions of 20 to 45 minutes. Leave your supplies where you’ll see them.
3. Week 3: Add a stretch. Learn one new technique, watch a lesson, or attend one class or group meeting.
4. Week 4: review. Did time fly at least once? Do you look forward to it? Keep it, adjust it or swap it for your second choice.

A hobby that doesn’t stick isn’t a failure. It’s data. The 16-country study counted many kinds of pastimes, so there’s no single right answer².

How strong is the evidence?

Claim	Rating	What it rests on
Having a hobby goes with better mood and life satisfaction in later life	Promising but early	Large long-term studies in 16 countries; cause not proven12
Regular arts and cultural outings lower the risk of depression and early death	Promising but early	English studies; much of the link unexplained or possibly reversed567
Learning a demanding new skill can improve memory in older adults	Promising but early	One randomized trial of 221 people1112
Hobbies prevent dementia	Not enough evidence	Observational links based on self-reported activity13
Creative hobbies bring more flow than passive leisure	Promising but early	Studies sampling workers’ moments through the day89

When your hobbies stop feeling good

Interest in a pastime naturally rises and falls. But losing interest in hobbies and activities is one of the signs of depression the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) lists¹⁴.

Depression is diagnosed when symptoms last most of the day, nearly every day, for at least two weeks, and one of them is either low mood or a loss of interest or pleasure¹⁴. NIMH advises seeing a health care provider if symptoms persist¹⁴.

Get professional help if you’ve had severe or distressing symptoms for two weeks or more, including¹⁵:

• losing interest in things you used to enjoy;
• trouble getting out of bed because of your mood;
• trouble sleeping, or changes in appetite or weight;
• trouble concentrating;
• irritability, frustration or restlessness.

A hobby can support recovery, but it isn’t a treatment for depression on its own. NIMH notes that treatment usually means talk therapy, medicine or both¹⁴. Our article on low mood covers how small, planned activities fit into care.

If you or someone you know is struggling or having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is free, confidential and open 24/7. In a life-threatening emergency, call 911¹⁵.

Questions readers ask

The bottom line

The best research on hobbies links them to better moods, more life satisfaction and sharper memory, especially later in life. The clearest single test comes from a trial where learning a hard new skill beat staying busy. Most of the rest shows a link, not proof, and researchers still argue about how much is cause and how much is that healthier people do more.

You don’t need proof to start, though. Pick something that fits your energy and budget, give it four weeks, and choose a stretch over a pastime that asks nothing of you. If the things you used to love stop interesting you for weeks on end, treat that as a reason to talk to a professional.

Related reading

• What held up from a famous study linking dancing to less dementia
• Home gardens save money until you count your hours, but a trial found other payoffs
• Sitting isn’t the new smoking, but long TV evenings still carry risk
• Purpose tracks with a longer life, while the Blue Zones story is less certain
• Emotional exhaustion isn’t only about work, since parents and helpers run dry too

Sources

1. Mak HW, Noguchi T, Bone J, Wels J, Gao Q, Kondo K, Saito T, Fancourt D. “Hobby Engagement and Mental Wellbeing Among People Aged 65 Years and Older in 16 Countries.” Nature Medicine, 2023;29(9):2233-2240 (record and abstract, University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study bibliography). pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
2. News-Medical. “Hobbies Protect Older People From Age-Related Decline in Mental Health and Wellbeing” (University College London release on Mak et al.). September 11, 2023. news-medical.net
3. Australian Science Media Centre (Scimex). “Over 65? Pick Up a Hobby to Keep Your Mental and Physical Health in Check” (release with funding details for Mak et al.). September 2023. scimex.org
4. Fancourt D, Finn S. “What Is the Evidence on the Role of the Arts in Improving Health and Well-Being? A Scoping Review.” WHO Regional Office for Europe, Health Evidence Network Synthesis Report 67, 2019 (copy hosted by Arts and Health Ireland). artsandhealth.ie
5. Fancourt D, Tymoszuk U. “Cultural Engagement and Incident Depression in Older Adults: Evidence From the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.” British Journal of Psychiatry, 2019;214(4):225-229 (Royal College of Music repository). researchonline.rcm.ac.uk
6. Katsampa D. “Cultural Activities Could Help Prevent Depression in Older Adults” (summary of Fancourt and Tymoszuk, with reader comments). The Mental Elf, National Elf Service, August 9, 2019. nationalelfservice.net
7. Fancourt D, Steptoe A. “The Art of Life and Death: 14 Year Follow-Up Analyses of Associations Between Arts Engagement and Mortality in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.” BMJ, 2019;367:l6377 (UCL repository). pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
8. Csikszentmihalyi M, LeFevre J. “Optimal Experience in Work and Leisure.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1989;56(5):815-822 (abstract, OnWork bibliography). onwork.edu.au
9. Engeser S, Baumann N. “Fluctuation of Flow and Affect in Everyday Life: A Second Look at the Paradox of Work.” Journal of Happiness Studies, 2014 (University of Trier). uni-trier.de
10. Stebbins RA. “The Serious Leisure Perspective: Concepts.” The Serious Leisure Perspective. seriousleisure.net
11. University of Texas at Dallas News Center. “Mentally Challenging Activities Improve Memory as Baby Boomers Age” (on Park DC, et al., Psychological Science). October 22, 2013. news.utdallas.edu
12. Park Aging Mind Laboratory, University of Texas at Dallas. “The Synapse Project.” agingmind.utdallas.edu
13. American Academy of Neurology, via ScienceDaily. “Which Leisure Activities Are Linked to Lower Risk of Dementia?” (on Su S, Shi L, et al., Neurology, 2022). August 10, 2022. ScienceDaily.com
14. National Institute of Mental Health. “Depression.” NIH Publication No. 24-MH-8079, revised 2024. nimh.nih.gov
15. National Institute of Mental Health. “Caring for Your Mental Health.” Last reviewed April 2026. nimh.nih.gov