BackgroundNewspaper reports of research on transport and health impact can influence ministers, senior officials, medical personnel, other researchers and the general public. This project explores the reporting of research activities in a widely-circulated UK newspaper, the Daily Mail, on various forms of transport and their effects on five non-communicable diseases (NCDs) namely oncology, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, respiratory and mental disorders. MethodsThe Daily Mail was examined for articles citing research, i.e. peer-reviewed journal articles, from 2002 to 2013. In total 28,254 stories were retrieved from the online archive using a systematic search of keywords and these were screened for relevance. The keywords used were based upon a combination of 58 identified themes such as walking or diesel or train, with another four namely research, study, science and policy. In total 232 searches were performed under the health section of the e-archive. Data such as headline and journalist, details of the cited papers, any commentators and a brief synopsis were transferred to an Excel spreadsheet and the types of research and the NCDs affected were recorded by means of codes. After exclusion of personal stories not involving research, and of duplicates, a total of 300 studies fitted the inclusion criteria. Details of the cited papers were obtained from the Web of Science. These were then used for statistical analysis with a range of VBA macros. ResultsPreliminary analysis showed that a third of the stories were about the positive effects of walking and cycling on fitness, and hence on cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The other two-thirds were negative, and concerned the effects of noise and air pollution on mental health, respiratory diseases and cancer. Geographically, the USA dominated the cited research papers with 30%, followed by the UK (21%) and Canada (11%). These papers were very clinical and described the effects on health rather than basic research. ConclusionsTransport affects human health in positive and negative ways. For example, recent legislation (December 2014) that provides for a smoking ban in cars in the presence of children has been receiving repeated reporting in the press since 2009 by experts seeking to create this law. Transport policy can thus affect any of these five NCDs and influence individuals on making choices about using different forms of transport or choosing where they live.