by Angie Smith, Streets Blog USA
It’s dangerous not to bike to work.
Overall mortality among bike commuters is significantly lower than among people who don’t bike or walk to work, according to a robust study recently published in the British Medical Journal. Controlling for a range of other factors, author Carlos Celis-Morales and his team found that bike commuting is linked to significantly lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Using data collected by the UK Biobank, which surveys the health status of more than half a million people over time, the research team found that bike commuters were 41 percent less likely to die during the five-year study period than people who drove or took transit.
In other words, people who bike to work are living longer than people who drive or take transit to work. The connection between bike commuting and lower mortality is “independent of sex, age, deprivation, ethnicity, smoking status, recreational and occupational physical activity, sedentary behaviour, dietary patterns, and other confounding factors,” the authors write.
Complete article here
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