Relationship between commuting and health outcomes in a cross-sectional population survey in southern Sweden

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Jonas Björk¹  Erik Hansson²  Kristina Jakobsson²  Kristoffer Mattisson²  Per-Olof Östergren³ 

[1] Competence Centre for Clinical Research, Skåne University Hospital, Lund, Sweden;Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Lund, Sweden;Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Regional University Laboratories, Lund, Sweden;Social Medicine and Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden;

关键词: Public Transport;    Sickness Absence;    Financial Stress;    Residential Location;    Poor Sleep Quality;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-11-834

 received in 2011-06-02, accepted in 2011-10-31,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe need for a mobile workforce inevitably means that the length of the total work day (working and traveling time) will increase, but the health effects of commuting have been surprisingly little studied apart from perceived stress and the benefits of physically active commuting.MethodsWe used data from two cross-sectional population-based public health surveys performed in 2004 and 2008 in Scania, Sweden (56% response rate). The final study population was 21, 088 persons aged 18-65, working > 30 h/week. Duration (one-way) and mode of commuting were reported. The outcomes studied were perceived poor sleep quality, everyday stress, low vitality, mental health, self-reported health, and absence from work due to sickness during the past 12 months. Covariates indicating socioeconomic status and family situation, overtime, job strain and urban/rural residency were included in multivariate analyses. Subjects walking or cycling to work < 30 min were used as a reference category.ResultsMonotonous relations were found between duration of public transport commuting and the health outcomes. For the category commuting > 60 min odds ratios (ORs) ranged from 1.2 - 1.6 for the different outcomes. For car commuting, the relationships were concave downward or flat, with increasing subjective health complaints up to 30-60 min (ORs ranging from 1.2 - 1.4), and lower ORs in the > 60 min category. A similar concave downward relationship was observed for sickness absence, regardless of mode of transport.ConclusionsThe results of this study are concordant with the few earlier studies in the field, in that associations were found between commutation and negative health outcomes. This further demonstrates the need to consider the negative side-effects of commuting when discussing policies aimed at increasing the mobility of the workforce. Studies identifying population groups with increased susceptibility are warranted.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Hansson et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011