AUTHOR=Ding Shuang , Wang Gangyi , Ma Jiwei 

TITLE=Does commuting time affect labour’ diet health?

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2025

YEAR=2025

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1508951

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2025.1508951

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=Will long commutes affect the health of workers? Numerous studies have shown that long commutes can lead to a decline in personal health, and the cause of this decline is generally believed to be an increase in stress. This study starts from the perspective of diet, combines income variables, and comprehensively analyzes the positive impact of income on the diet of workers and the negative impact of commuting time on the diet of workers. New evidence has been added to the impact of long commutes on workers’ health. The empirical results based on the CHNS survey data show that: (1) there is an inhibitory effect of commuting time in the process of income contributing to the improvement of Chinese laborers’ diet quality. (2) longer commuting time reduces laborers’ intake of fish, seafood, vegetables, eggs, milk, and nuts, which leads to a decrease in the overall diet quality. (3) longer commuting time has a more negative impact on the quality of laborers’ diets, and this effect is further amplified with age. (4) Increased commuting time leads to a decrease in the dietary quality of laborers’ children. Therefore, there is a need to shorten the commuting time of workers, optimize the urban structure, and promote the formation of a polycentric urban pattern to alleviate the imbalance in the dietary structure of residents.