Understanding inter-city travelers' weekend daily mobilities, noise, and psycho-physiological stress: Evidence from residents with cross-city work-residence arrangements.

Authors

Lirong Kou, Yapeng Xue, Miao Luo, Mei-Po Kwan, Honggang Xu

Published in

Social science & medicine (1982). Volume 408. Pages 119800. Sep 05, 2026. Epub Sep 05, 2026.

Abstract

Noise is an important environmental stressor, yet how noise-related stress unfolds across everyday mobility contexts remains insufficiently understood. Existing mobility-based studies have focused largely on intra-city movement and self-reported psychological stress, with less attention to physiological stress in real-life settings and to inter-city mobility under regional integration. This exploratory study examines how weekend mobility contexts are associated with objective noise exposure, subjective noise perception, and physiological and psychological stress responses among inter-city travelers with cross-city work-residence arrangements. Integrating real-time noise sensing, activity-travel diaries, self-reported measures, and wearable physiological data, we analyzed 945 weekend observations nested within 44 participants living in Zhongshan and working in Zhuhai, a specific subgroup of inter-city travelers in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, China. Path analysis with cluster-robust standard errors showed that higher-than-usual objective noise exposure was directly associated with physiological stress, while its association with psychological stress was mediated by perceived noise. Weekend mobility contexts were also important. Travel episodes, especially non-leisure-oriented travel, were more strongly associated with elevated stress-related outcomes than most activity episodes. No statistically significant stress-related association was detected for inter-city leisure activities, whereas inter-city non-leisure activities were linked to stronger perceived noise and higher indirect associations with physiological and psychological stress. These findings provide preliminary evidence that noise-related stress is context-dependent and pathway-specific. By integrating wearable physiological sensing with real-time noise measurement and activity-travel diaries, this study advances a contextualized understanding of how regional integration may reshape everyday environmental stress and health-related outcomes. Public health interventions should address mobile noise exposure and related stress beyond residential environments, particularly in contexts of regional integration.

PMID:
42702168
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 07 Sep 2026.

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