Cycling to work can reduce the number of sick days people need to take, a new study has suggested.

The research — recently published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports — examined associations between active commuting and sickness absences in a cohort of 28,485 employees working in Finland’s public sector.

Compared to passive commuters, a high dose of active commuting (mean of 61km a week) was associated with an eight to 12 per cent lower relative risk of sickness absence days and an 18 per cent lower relative risk of long episodes.

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The researchers concluded that the study “adds to the existing evidence that regular commuting physical activity by bicycle has potential for reducing sickness absence days by reducing the risk of long-term episodes”. They also suggested it may provide “further reasons for employers to encourage employees to use active commuting” and to potentially “invest in incentives” for those who do cycle to work, such as “providing bicycle benefit, bicycle parking, and changing rooms with showers”.

Using sickness absence data from nearly 30,000 employees, the research used negative binomial regression to test associations of weekly active commuting with all-cause sickness absence. Levels of active commuting were categorised into ‘no’, ‘low’, ‘moderate’ and ‘high’, depending on the distance covered.

Commuters (CC licensed image by kube414_Flickr).jpg
Commuters (CC licensed image by kube414_Flickr) (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)

Likewise, sickness absence data comprised of the number of sickness absence days, with ‘short’ referring to one to nine days, while ‘long’ referred to sickness absences greater than or equal to 10 days.

Researchers adjusted the models for socio-demographic factors, lifestyle risk factors and previous sickness absence and to demonstrate absolute risk, they calculated sex and age-adjusted incidence for sickness absence per 100 person years for each active commuting group.

It is worth highlighting that the reduced risk of sickness absence days was as a result of reducing the risk of ‘long’ absences of, or in excess of, 10 days. For shorter absences (one to nine days) there were diverging results and “no evidence of a protective association” was found.

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In fact, the researchers found that the lowest weekly dose of active commuting (particularly by walking) was associated with a higher risk compared to passive commuting. They suggested examining more information on the diagnosis behind the absence would be “useful”, considering “that the causes of and the risk factors for shorter sickness absence episodes are likely to differ from those of long episodes”.

Cyclist in London with face covering in cycle lane – copyright Simon MacMichael
Cyclist in London with face covering in cycle lane – copyright Simon MacMichael (Image Credit: Simon MacMichael)

“After adjustments, and using passive commuting as a reference, the highest dose of active commuting was associated with eight to 12 per cent lower relative risk of sickness absence days and 18 per cent lower relative risk of long episodes,” the research stated. “Accordingly, the absolute rate of sickness absence per 100 person-years during either follow-up time was lower by 405–452 days and 9–10 long episodes.

“The observed association with lower sickness absence days are in line with two earlier studies where bicycle commuting was associated with lower rate of sickness absence equivalent to one day per year.”

The findings also suggested that to gain “sufficient weekly amount of active commuting”, cycling is better than walking, and that “high-dose” active commuting involved a “mean of 61 active km/week”.

Looking forward to future research, the study did note that wearable devices could be used to gain greater insight into commuting behaviour.

“This study adds to the existing evidence that regular commuting physical activity by bicycle has potential for reducing sickness absence days by reducing the risk of long-term episodes,” it concluded. “Our findings may provide further reasons for employers to encourage the employees to use active commuting. The employers could invest in incentives such as providing bicycle benefit, bicycle parking, and changing rooms with showers.”

The research into cycling’s health benefits has been well documented. Last year, research published in the British Medical Journal concluded that those who cycle to work were associated with a 47 per cent lower risk of death and a 24 per cent lower risk of hospital admission for cardiovascular disease.

Cyclist in London snood and headphones – copyright Simon MacMichael
Cyclist in London snood and headphones – copyright Simon MacMichael (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)

However, with cycle commuters twice as likely as ‘inactive’ commuters to be admitted to hospital after a road traffic collision, the study suggested it “reinforces the need for safer cycling infrastructure” to enable more people to access active travel journeys and the “important” health benefits.

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In November, a study by ProPass — an international academic collaboration led by University College London and the University of Sydney — found that cycling one short journey a day is enough to lower blood pressure.

That came a month after new rehabilitation research suggested that in-bed cycling for critically ill patients was found to reduce intensive care stays and improve physical function.