Association Between Commuting Time and Sickness Absence in the Context of China: Transmission Channels and Heterogeneous Effects

Abstract Background: Most of employees in urban China have experienced a heavy commuting burden，which has become an urgent issue that should be solved in the process of new urbanization strategy. However, not only has the exploration of relationship between the commuting and sickness absence been still scant in China, but also there is no discussion made to analyze the mechanism linking the commuting time and sickness absence. To address these gaps, this study firstly investigates the commuting-absence linkage as well as the potential transmission channel between them.Methods: Using a unique dataset of 2013 Matched Employer-Employee Survey (CMEES) in China, current study apply the zero-inflated negative binomial model to explore the association.Results: Long commute is significantly related with increased sickness absence. A longer commuting is associated with poorer self-rated health status and a higher degree of psychological depression, and it also is highly related with an increase of their BMI index, annual medical expenses as well as the risk of obesity. However, the commuting is not correlated with the overtime length and probability of overtime. Conclusion: The longer commute induces to lower productivities through the increased sickness absence, and the potential linkage of commute-sickness absence is mainly transmitted through their health-related outcomes.