Examining the relationships between individual’s time use and activity participations with their health indicators

Abstract Purpose Using a three-week household activity-travel survey, this paper explores the relationship between individuals’ self-reported physical, mental and social health conditions and their time allocation for different types of in-home and out-of-home time activities. Methods A path model is developed to investigate the roles of activity-travel time use on the self-reported health conditions, while the socio-demographics and residential environment characteristics are also considered. Results The model results reveal heterogeneous impacts of different types of activities and intensities on individual’s self-reported health conditions. This study, however, did not find evidence of positive relationship between cycling and walking and self-reported physical health condition, which has been found in many developed countries. Presumably this is because in developing countries like Indonesia the individuals who walk and cycle are likely to be a part of economically disadvantaged groups who have less awareness to their own health conditions. Conclusion Beside activity and travel time use factors, age and working status were found significantly affecting the self-reported health conditions, regardless of respondents’ gender and income. Neighbourhood characteristics, such as population density, are also found positively correlated to self-reported respondents’ physical, social and mental health conditions