Study On The Impact Mechanism Of Commuting On Workers’ Health

Health is fundamental to a good life and is always aspirational.Perceptions of health range from disease-free physical health to physical,psychological and social well-being.With social and economic development,people have found that their health levels have declined while their living conditions have improved,and researchers have further explored the factors that influence health.Research has shown that individual economic,family,occupational and regional characteristics have a significant impact on workers’ health.A further area of daily life that needs further research into its impact on health is in the area of commuting.Commuting,i.e.a commuter’s journey between home and work,is an important part of a worker’s daily life and is therefore also closely related to health.After summarising and analysing the relevant literature on commuting and workers’health,the paper identifies the theoretical basis and hypothesises that commuting affects workers’ health and what role intermediate mechanisms play in this.an empirical test using data from the 2016 China Labour Force Survey revealed that commuting has a significant negative impact on workers’ health.Specifically,commuting time has a significant negative impact on workers’ self-rated health,mental health and physical health,while commuting costs have a significant negative impact on workers’ physical health.Commuting affects workers’ health by affecting their life satisfaction.Life satisfaction partially and fully mediates the impact of commuting on workers’ self-rated health and mental health,masking the impact of commuting on workers’ physical health.The impact of commuting on workers’ health was found to vary by gender and age.Travel time had a more significant impact on the self-rated health and physical health of male workers,while travel costs had a more significant impact on the physical health of female workers.Travel time had a more significant impact on the self-rated health and physical health of workers under 45 years of age,and travel costs had a more significant impact on the physical health of workers under 45 years of age.The results are robust to the inclusion of macro urban control variables and the substitution of commuting mode.Regarding the possible endogenous nature of the causal relationship between commuting and health,the results suggest that commuting has a greater impact on workers’health when community belonging is used as a control variable.Based on these results,this paper presents ideas and recommendations for improving workers’ health awareness and health habits,promoting the use of public transport to increase travel efficiency and awareness,promoting flextime and staggered working hours,and optimising urban planning to improve work-life balance.