Health benefits of cycling
| km/d | all cause mortality (RR) | days of life gained per cycling year | per 1 km/d | |
| 0 METh/day | 0.0 | 1.00 | 0 | 0.0 |
| 0.1 - 3.4 METh/day | 10.0 | 0.79 | 6 | 0.6 |
| >3.4 METh/day | 20.0 | 0.66 | 17 | 0.8 |
| Avg | 0.7 | |||
| Respective BoD gained 5.5E-06 DALY/km
1 MET-h per day = 15 min 4 MET cycling per day or 105 min per week | ||||
Andersen et al, 2000 [rated weak study]: 30 000 Danish women and men, of which 7 000 cycled to work. Follow up 14.5 years. RR for all cause mortality of cyclists vs. non cyclists was 0.72, adjusted e.g. for leisure time activity.
Matthews et al. 2007 [Rated strong study]: 70 000 Chinese women (40 - 70 y.), walking, cycling, exercise, 5.7 year follow up. (i) 0 METh/day, (ii) 0.1-3.4 METh/day (i.e, up to 1 h moderate cycling per day) and (iii) >3.4 METh/day.
- Compared to (i) the RR for all cause mortality was 0,79 in (ii) and 0,66 in (iii)
Hoevenaar-Blom et al. 2010 [Rated strong study]: 16 000 Dutch men and women (20-64 y) prospective 10 year follow up study. Adjusted hazard ratio for CVD incidence for cyclists v.s. non-cyclists was 0.82.
- Overall sports participation for up to 3.5 h/wk reduced CHD incidence by 23 % and over 3.5 h/wk by additional 34 %. Together cycling and sport resulted in further 36 % reduction.
- Adjusted hazard ratio v.s. no cycling or sports decreased to 0.82 for cyclists, 0.72 for sportists, and 0.63 for those doing both.
Hartog et al. 2010 [Review]: 18-64 y. population based assessment, shift from car to bicycle:
- Avg. individual gain from increased physical activity 90-420 days, increased air pollution exposure loss 1-40 days, traffic accidents loss 5-9 days of healthy life. Net gain is 84-371 days.
- Average time to gain the benefit, 40 years or 14610 days, 7.5-15 km/day, 109575-219150 km total.
Refs from: Oja et al. (2011)Health benefits of cycling: a systematic review. Scand J Med Sci Sports
Hartog et al. (2010) Do the Health Benefits of Cycling Outweigh the Risks? EHP 2010