Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

Determinants of residential indoor and transportation activity times in Korea

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 21, pages 310–316 (2011)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Information on time spent in microenvironments has a critical role for personal exposure to environmental pollutants. Unlike several large-scale studies in Western countries, no comprehensive research on time-activity patterns for exposure assessment has been conducted in Korea. We investigated determinants of residential indoor and transportation times of individuals over 10-years old in the Korean population. The population-based study collected time-activity patterns of 31,634 Koreans for two consecutive days. The residential indoor and transportation times were collected for a weekday and a weekend day. The impact of sociodemographic factors on time-activity was assessed using multiple linear regression models. The residential indoor times were 14.23 h for the weekday and 16.13 h for the weekend and shorter than those in Western countries. The transportation times were 1.75 h for the weekday and 1.68 h for the weekend day. The most significant factors in residential indoor time were employment status, age, monthly income, and gender for the weekday and employment status and gender for the weekend day. The factors in transportation were gender, employment status, and monthly income for the weekday and gender, employment status, age, and marriage status for the weekend day. Determinants of the time-activity pattern need to be taken into account in exposure assessment, epidemiological analyses, and exposure simulations, as well as in the development of preventive strategies. As Korean population activity patterns are substantially different from those in Western countries such as USA, Germany, and UK, this information could be critical for exposure assessment in Korea and other Asian countries.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1
Figure 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Brasche S., and Bischof W. Daily time spent indoor in German homes—baseline data for the assessment of indoor exposure of German occupants. Int J Hyg Environ Health 2005: 208: 247–253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Briggs D.J., Denman A.R., Gulliver J., Marley R.F., Kennedy C.A., and Philips P.S., et al. Time activity modeling of domestic exposure to radon. J Environ Manage 2003: 67: 107–120.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bruin Y.B.D., Hanninen O., Carrer P., Maroni M., Kephalopoulos S., and Marco G.S.D., et al. Simulation of working population exposures to carbon monoxide using EXOLIS-Milan microenvironment concentration time-activity data. J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 2004: 14: 154–163.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chau C.K., Tu E.Y., Chan D.W.T., and Burnett J. Estimating the total exposure to air pollutants for different population age groups in Hong Kong. Environ Int 2002: 27: 617–630.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dorre W.H. Time-activity patterns of some selected small groups as a basis for exposure estimation : a methodological study. J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 1997: 7: 471–491.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Echols S.L., Macintosh D.L., Hammerstrom K.A., and Ryan P.B. Temporal variability of microenvironmental time budgets in Maryland. J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 1999: 9: 502–512.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Freeman N.C., Lioy P.J., Pellizzari E., Zelon H., Thomas K., and Clayton A., et al. Responses to the region 5 NHEXAS time/activity diary. J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 1999: 9: 414–426.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Freeman N.C., Waldman J.M., and Lioy P.J. Design evaluation a location activity log used for assessing personal exposure to air pollutants. J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 1991: 1: 327–338.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Graham S.E., and McCurdy T. Developing meaningful cohorts for human exposure models. J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 2004: 14: 23–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins P.L., Philips T.J., Mulberg E.J., and Hui S.P. Activity patterns of Californians: use of proximity to indoor pollutants sources. Atmos Environ 1992: 26A: 2141–2148.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Klepeis N.E. An introduction to the indirect exposure assessment approach: modeling human exposure using microenvironmental measurements the recent national human activity pattern survey. Environ Health Perspect 1999: 107 (Suppl 2): 365–374.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lai H.K., Kendall M., Ferrier H., Lindup I., Alm S., Hanninen O., Jantunen M., Mathys P., Colvile R., Ashmore M.R., Cullinan P. and Nieuwenhuijsen M.J. Personal exposures and microenvironment concentrations of PM2 5, VOC, NO2 and CO in Oxford, UK. Atm Environ 2004: 38: 6399–6410.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Leech J.A., Nelson W.C., Burnett R.T., Aaron S., and Raizenne M.E. It's about time: a comparison of Canadian and American time-activity patterns. J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 2002: 12: 427–432.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCurdy T., and Graham S.E. Using human activity data in exposure models: analysis of discriminating factors. J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 2003: 13: 294–317.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ministry of Environment (MEK). Korean Exposure Factor Handbook. Ministry of Environment of Korea, Incheon, 2007.

  • Rotko T., Oglesby L., Kunzli N., and Jantunen M.J. Population sampling in European air pollution exposure study, EXPOLIS: comparisons between the cities and representativeness of the samples. J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 2000: 10: 355–364.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Schwab M., Colome S.D., Spengler J.D., Ryan P.B., and Bullick I.H. Activity patterns applied to pollutant exposure assessment: data from a personal modeling study in Los Angeles. Toxicol Ind Health 1990: 6: 517–532.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schweizer C., Edwards R.D., Bayer-oglesby L., Gauderman W.J., Ilacqua V., and Jantunen M.J., et al. Indoor time-microenvironment-activity patterns in seven regions of Europe. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 2007: 17: 170–181.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sexton K., Mongin S.J., Adgate J.L., Pratt G.C., Ramachandran G., and Stock T.H., et al. Estimating volatile organic compound concentrations in selected microenvironments using time-activity and personal exposure data. J Toxicol Environ Health A 2007: 70: 465–476.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wallace L.A., Pellizzari E.D., Hartwell T.D., Davis V., Michael L.C., and Whitmore R.W. The team study—personal exposures to toxic substances in air, drinking water, and breath of 400 residents of New Jersey, North Carolina, and North Dakota. Environ Res 1989: 43: 290–307.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang S.W., Majeed M.A., Chu P.L., and Lin H.C. Characterizing relationships between personal exposures to VOCs and socioeconomic, demographic, behavioral variables. Atmos Environ 2009: 43: 2296–2302.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • WHO. Guideline for Air Quality. World Health Organization Document, WHO/SED/OEH/, WHO, Geneva,, 2000.

  • Yang W., Lee S., and Paek D. Exposure assessment and estimation of personal exposure for nitrogen dioxide using time weighted average model. J Korean Soc Atmos Environ 2001: 17: 251–258.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This study is supported by National Institute of Environmental Research, Korea.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Occupational Health, Catholic University of Daegu, Daegu, Republic of Korea

    Wonho Yang

  2. Department of Environmental Health and Institute of Health and Environment, Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Kiyoung Lee & Chungsik Yoon

  3. Environmental Epidemiology Division, Environmental Health Risk Research Department, National Institute of Environmental Research, Incheon, Republic of Korea

    Seungdo Yu, Kyunghwa Park & Wookhee Choi

Authors
  1. Wonho Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kiyoung Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Chungsik Yoon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Seungdo Yu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Kyunghwa Park
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Wookhee Choi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kiyoung Lee.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Yang, W., Lee, K., Yoon, C. et al. Determinants of residential indoor and transportation activity times in Korea. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 21, 310–316 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2010.23

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2010.23

Keywords

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links