Active Commuting in Brazil: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Proportions

Background: Active commuting benefits both individual and planetary health. Estimating commuting behavior is desirable, although very challenging in large and regionally relevant nations like Brazil.

Methods: This review (CRD42023431054) included observational studies that estimated prevalence of active commuting in Brazil for adults (≥18 y). We searched terms related to physical activity, commuting, prevalence estimates, and Brazilian geographical regions in 5 databases (PubMed, EMBASE, LILACS, CINAHL, and SPORTDiscus). For the quantitative synthesis, 2 categories were used based on the strictness of case definition: "high-volume threshold" (HIGH), considering "active" individuals with ≥150 minutes per week; and "low-volume threshold" (LOW), considering "active" individuals with ≥10 minutes per week of active commuting or self-reporting this behavior.

Results: There were 37 studies included in the main model, totaling 52 individual prevalence estimates and 1,266,862 units. Prevalence estimates were: 17.4% (15.1%-19.9%) for HIGH and 44.2% (36.9%-51.5%) for LOW. Subgroup analysis revealed a prevalence of 20.5% (16.7%-24.9%) for men and 13.8% (10.2%-17.9%) for women using HIGH, and 43.4% (27.2%-60.4%) for men and 47.6% (32.1%-63.4%) for women using LOW categories. Most studies had high risk of bias.

Conclusions: We herein provided a panorama of active commuting in Brazil. Standardized active commuting definitions and objective measures of commuting activity are lacking. Studies specific to some regions of Brazil were few or inexistent. Considering the global importance of Brazil, sheltering ecologically relevant biomes, we encourage new, high-quality studies assessing commuting and its potential impacts on individual and planetary health.