Is your daily commute to work making you depressed?

Unless you’re employed from home or you’re lucky enough to live next to your workplace, you’ve probably experienced commuting. You’re likely to have sat in traffic or hopped on the bus or metro to complete your journey.

Different people approach commuting differently. Some read, while others listen to music or play games on their phone. Yet research in the UK from the University of Cambridge and VitalityHealth found that people who travel for more than 60 minutes on their daily trip to the workplace are more likely to suffer from depression than those with shorter commutes. The study of 34,000 British employees found that those with long commutes were more likely to suffer from mental issues.

In fact, if you’re commuting for more than 60 minutes each day you are 33 per cent more likely to suffer from depression.

The same workers were also found to be 21 per cent more likely to be obese and 12 per cent more likely to suffer from work-related stress. In an interview with The Independent, Shaun Subel, director of strategy at VitalityHealth, suggested employers should consider flexible working arrangements for their staff in light of the findings.

“Beyond looking at ways that the work environment can be altered to make it more conducive to improved health and well-being, our research suggests that employers should perhaps be looking at flexible working arrangements as a more prominent part of their workplace wellness or productivity management strategy,” he said.