Health impacts of commuting

An example here of the apparent difficulty experienced by people who write press releases of conveying useful information. One has to find and read the abstract for useful information.

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

Subjects walking or cycling to work <30 min were used as a reference category.

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.

Relationships 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.

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/11/834/abstract

 OR stands for Odds Ratio..