In the past year, a growing number of companies have asked employees to return to the office either full- or part-time after years of pandemic-induced remote working. While this is a good thing when it comes to being able to socialise with your colleagues, it may have some negative effects on your health – depending on how long your commute is.
Our research project, completed in late 2022, found that a lengthy commute to work is associated with being less physically active, being overweight, and having sleep problems. And, depending on where your office is located, you may also be more likely to drink in excess.
To conduct our research, we obtained data from the Swedish Longitudinal Survey of Health, using waves conducted between 2012 and 2018. We looked at responses from approximately 13,000 participants aged 16-64 on a range of topics – including their lifestyle (for example, how often they exercised, if they drank or smoke, and their weight), their occupation, how stressed they were about work, and whether they had any pre-existing health conditions.
