Perceived health status associated with transport choice for short distance trips

Abstract

BackgroundThis study examines the association between active transport and perceived general health, perceived psychological wellbeing and a healthy body weight in the Netherlands.MethodsData were collected by an online questionnaire (N = 3663) in the Netherlands. Data collection was conducted over a period of one calendar year starting July 2012. Logistic regression analyses were used to investigate the association between choice of transport mode (bicycling vs car use and walking vs car use) and perceived general health, perceived psychological wellbeing and having a healthy weight respectively. The presented OR's may be interpreted as the likelihood of an average person in our dataset to have a better perceived health or body weight when choosing active transport (either bicycling or walking) over using the car for trips up to 7.5 km.ResultsCycling was found to be significantly associated with a better perceived general health (OR = 1.35, 95%CI:1.07–1.70) and having a healthy body weight (OR = 1.52, 95%CI:1.28–1.79), but not with a better perceived psychological wellbeing (OR = 1.12, 95%CI:0.93–1.34). Walking was found to be significantly associated with having a healthy body weight (OR = 1.35, 95%CI:1.09–1.69), but not with a better perceived general (OR = 1.12, 95%CI:0.84–1.51) or psychological wellbeing (OR = 0.85, 95%CI:0.67–1.08).ConclusionOur results suggest that active transport use has been associated with a better perceived general health and a healthy body weight. However, more research is needed to be able to elucidate which factors cause this better health. No associations were observed between transport choice and perceived psychological wellbeing.

The effects of transport mode use on self-perceived health, mental health, and social contact measures: A cross-sectional and longitudinal study

“…Bicycle use showed the most robust results throughout all the different analyses. Our results are in line with previous studies that associated bicycle use with better health outcomes: perceived general health (Scheepers et al, 2015), perceived stress (Avila-Palencia et al, 2017), mental well-being (Martin et al, 2014;Mytton et al, 2016), and quality of life (de Geus et al, 2008). Qualitative research has suggested that choice of travel mode may affect well-being due to the fact that travelling (mainly commuting) can be perceived as a relaxing or transitional time between home and work life, which can also be about enjoying pleasant landscape, nature, and wildlife (Guell and Ogilvie, 2015).…”

“…On the other hand, Richards et al 2015 found small positive associations with happiness for walking, but no significant associations for the transport domain. Scheepers et al 2015 found that, in comparison with car use, walking was neither associated with perceived general health nor with psychological well-being. Also Mytton et al 2016 did not find statistically significant associations between walking and mental well-being.…”

The Role of Personality Traits through Habit and Intention on Determining Future Preferences of Public Transport Use

“…Additionally, the influence of car access and socio-demographic characteristics are examined in this study. Furthermore, the correlation of body mass index (BMI) with active travel such as walking/biking and use of public transportation has been examined in several studies, with most finding a connection between lower BMI or a healthy body weight and active travel [40,41,42,43,44,45,46]. That being said, however, other studies reported limited evidence of association between adult BMI and active transport [47] and none between public transport accessibility and obesity [48].…”

Health comparisons between active and inactive transport modes in urban adults with chronic conditions: A cross‐sectional study

“…Compared to a low PA level, adults with chronic diseases with a high or moderate PA level had a better QOL (Abdelbasset et al, 2019;Pengpid & Peltzer, 2019). Previous cross-sectional studies also revealed that there was a significant positive association between transport-related PA levels and QOL (Humphreys et al, 2013;Scheepers et al, 2015). Individuals who choose walking, cycling, and public transportation as a major transport mode have higher life satisfaction, mental health, and QOL (Chng et al, 2016;Insall, 2013).…”