Likelihood of following a physician prescription to engage in the arts: rates and predictors in a representative sample of US adults

Healthcare systems around the world are demonstrating increasing engagement with social prescribing of activities such as engagement in the arts (“arts on prescription”). However, what remains unclear is how people perceive receiving a referral to the arts from a clinician (i.e. an arts prescription), and, more specifically, whether arts prescriptions are likely to be taken up by recipients. Data were taken from the Americans Speak Out About the Arts in 2023 Survey led by Americans for the Arts in the US. A sample of 3,062 adults aged 18+ from the continental U.S. were recruited and interviewed online in English, of whom 2,996 provided complete data for analyses (52.5% female, 70.1% White). Participants were asked “If your doctor wrote you a prescription to participate in the arts as a means of improving your physical or mental health (singing in a choir, taking a ceramics class, dancing, or joining a book club, etc.), how likely are you to follow their recommendation?”. Overall, 76% said they were somewhat or very likely to follow a doctor’s recommendation if they were given a prescription to engage in the arts. Multiple logistic regression models showed that the strongest predictors of positive responses were experience of past health benefits from the arts, belief in future health benefits, high educational attainment, approval of government arts funding, existing engagement in the arts, and being female. Applying behaviour change frameworks, the strongest identified predictors relate to reflective motivations, suggesting that rich programmes aimed at explaining what arts on prescription is, how it works, why patients are receiving referrals, what the evidence base is, and what benefits patients may experience could be fundamental to increasing uptake as pilot schemes of arts on prescription continue to develop in the US.