The relationship between bicycle commuting and perceived stress: a cross-sectional study

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Environmental Health
• Transportation Studies

Background:

• Active commuting, including walking and bicycling, promotes daily physical activity.
• Previous research explored active commuting and stress, but not specifically bicycle commuting's link to perceived stress or environmental factors.
• The study addresses a gap by examining bicycle commuting and perceived stress in a dense urban environment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the relationship between bicycle commuting and perceived stress among working or studying adults in an urban setting.
• To investigate if the frequency of bicycle commuting influences perceived stress levels.
• To account for environmental determinants in the association between bicycle commuting and stress.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study involving 788 adults in Barcelona, Spain, who commuted to work or study.
• Participants completed a telephone survey on travel behavior, categorizing them as bicycle commuters or non-bicycle commuters and assessing stress using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-4).
• Multivariate Poisson regression models were used to analyze stress status based on bicycle commuting, adjusting for confounders.

Main Results:

• Bicycle commuters exhibited a significantly lower risk of perceived stress compared to non-bicycle commuters (RR=0.73).
• Commuters cycling four or more days per week showed a substantially reduced risk of stress (RR=0.42 for ≥4 days/week, RR=0.57 for ≥5 days/week).
• These findings remained significant after adjusting for individual and environmental factors and varying stress thresholds.

Conclusions:

• Routine bicycle commuting is associated with reduced perceived stress.
• Promoting bicycle use can be a strategy for stress reduction in urban populations.
• Decision-makers should consider stress reduction as a significant co-benefit of encouraging bicycle commuting.