Study shows the benefits of cycling to work

Abstract: A study out of Finland has found that cycling to work not only benefits the individual but an employer thanks to their overall fitness. Conducted by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, the findings were highlighted in a recent article published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports and written by Essi Kalliolalhti, a researcher at FIOH. The most active commuters surveyed traveled close to 19 miles a week. 

Researchers with the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH) have concluded that when it comes to cycling to work, it is not only good for you physically, but also for employers.

An active commute, the organization says, “that involves exercise can reduce the number of sick days and lower the risk of long sickness absences. Commuting by bicycle in particular is associated with a lower risk of sickness absence.”

Those findings and others were highlighted in a recent article  published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports and written by Essi Kalliolahti, a researcher at FIOH who oversaw a study conducted last year on the topic of active commuting.

According to Kalliolahti, while “there is already research evidence on the health and environmental benefits of active commuting its connection to the risk of long sickness absences, for example, has not been studied at all before. Now it is known that regular commuting by bicycle can reduce the risk of long periods of sickness absence.”

A release from the FIOH stated that the most active commuters traveled more than 30 kilometres (18.64 miles) weekly and an average of 61 kilometres (38  miles) per week: “The average one-way commute in this group was 9.4 kilometres (5.85 miles), and the commute was more often done by bicycle than on foot. A high number of active weekly commuting kilometres was linked to a lower risk of sickness absence.”

Other findings revealed that:

• Compared to passive commuters, “the most active commuters had an 8–18 per cent lower risk of sickness absence days and long periods of sickness absence of at least 10 days during the follow-up.”
• When walking and cycling were studied separately, a lower risk of sickness absence was only found in the group of the most active commuter cyclists.
• On average, the most active commuters had 4.5 fewer sickness absence days per person-year than passive commuters.

In his article, Kalliolahti wrote that “insufficient physical activity among the working-age population is a major public health concern. Active commuting to work provides a practical means to incorporate more physical activity into the workweek. Additionally, emissions from motorized commuting traffic contributes to climate change. To tackle both of these challenges, governments and cities around the world are promoting the use of active and sustainable commute modes such as walking and cycling.”

There is no doubt that cycling is good for your health as evidenced last May when the Baylor College of Medicine reported on a study conducted by one of its faculty members, Dr. Grace Lo, an associate professor of medicine. Her findings which were published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, revealed that “people who participated in regular bicycling over their lifetime had a lower prevalence of frequent knee paint, radiographic osteoarthritis (ROA) and symptomatic radiographic osteoarthritis (SOA).

Lo said in an article published by Baylor on her findings that “compared to non-bicyclers, bicyclers were 17 per cent less likely to have frequent knee pain, nine per cent less likely to have ROA, and 21 per cent less likely to have SOA compared to non-bicyclers.

“Moreover, those who did bike and did so across age periods throughout their lives reported even fewer instants of all three.”