Exploring the complex relationships between air pollution, life satisfaction and mental health through the lens of daily activity-travel patterns: The case of a suburban residential community in Beijing

The association of air pollution with subjective wellbeing and mental health is a topic of growing discussion in the fields of environment science, public health, psychology and geography of health. However, short-term (activity/trip episode and momentary) to medium-term (day and week) air pollution exposure, however, has not been fully studied in relation to long-term (month and year) subjective wellbeing and mental health. Using an activity-travel diary survey conducted in the Meiheyuan residential community, Beijing between November 2017 and January 2018, we investigated the associations of day-level ambient and perceived air pollution exposure with day-level satisfaction, long-term life satisfaction and mental health through the lens of daily activity-travel patterns. Here we found that day-level perceived air pollution, rather than day-level ambient PM_2.5 exposure, is negatively related to people's life satisfaction and mental health in the long term, primarily by reducing day-level satisfaction. Among attributes of people's daily activity and travel pattern, public transport duration is directly and positively associated with life satisfaction, and indirect connections are established through day-level satisfaction and day-level perceived air pollution. However, no activity-travel pattern variables are statistically significantly related to mental health. Moreover, life circumstances have a stronger association with life satisfaction than with mental health, with both direct effects and indirect effects related to day-level perceived air pollution and day-level satisfaction.