Cycling to work linked with better mental health
Posted on in Business News , Cycles News
An analysis of almost 380,000 people living in Scotland suggests that commuting by bike reduces the risk of mental ill-health.
While previous research suggests cycling to work benefits peoples’ mental wellbeing, most studies have involved small numbers of participants and self-reported measures of mental health.
Now, University of Edinburgh researchers combined data for 378,253 people aged 16-74 from the 2011 Scottish census with NHS prescription records for the following five years.
The people included in the study lived and worked in Edinburgh or Glasgow, stayed within around one mile of a cycle path and did not have any prescriptions for mental ill-health at the start of the study.
Researchers found a 15% reduction in prescriptions for depression or anxiety amongst cycle commuters in the five years after 2011 compared with non-cyclists. Commuting by bike led to greater reductions in mental health prescriptions in women than in men.
The team’s analysis also reveals that only around 2% of commuters in Glasgow cycled to work, with just under 5% doing so in Edinburgh. Men were more likely than women to ride a bike to work.
The findings provide further evidence of the importance of promoting active travel and investing in infrastructure to encourage more people to commute by bike, the team says.
The study, published in The International Journal of Epidemiology, was funded by the Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC) through Administrative Data Research (ADR) Scotland.