Time Spent Commuting to Work and Mental Health: Evidence From 13 Waves of an Australian Cohort Study

Abstract

Time-related stressors, such as long working hours, are recognized as being detrimental to health. We considered whether time spent commuting to work was a risk factor for poor mental health. Data from the Household, Income Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey were used to conduct fixed-effects longitudinal regression analyses. The outcome variable was the Mental Health Inventory, and the main exposure represented hours per week traveling to and from a place of paid employment. Effect modifiers included sex, low job control, high demands, and low job security. Compared with when a person commuted for ≤2 hours per week, there was a small decline (coefficient=-0.33, 95% CI: -0.62, -0.04; P=0.025) in the Mental Health Inventory score when they commuted for over 6 hours per week. Compared with persons with high job control, persons working in jobs with low job control experienced significantly greater declines in the Mental Health Inventory score when commuting 4 to 6 hours per week and when commuting over 6 hours per week. We found no influence from the other hypothesized effect modifiers. These results suggest the importance of considering commuting time as an additional work-related time stressor.