Abstract

Introduction: COVID-19 has impacted millions of commuters by decreasing their mobility and transport patterns. While these changes in travel have been studied, less is known about how commute changes may have impacted individuals' body mass index (BMI). The present longi-tudinal study explores the relationship between commute mode and BMI of employed individuals in Montre ' al, Canada.Methods: This study uses panel data drawn from two waves of the Montre ' al Mobility Survey (MMS) conducted before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (n = 458). BMI was modeled separately for women and men as a function of commuting mode, WalkScore (c), sociodemo-graphic, and behavioral covariates using a multilevel regression modeling approach.Results: For women, BMI significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, but tele-commuting frequency, and more specifically telecommuting as a replacement of driving, led to a statistically significant decrease in BMI. For men, higher levels of residential local accessibility decreased BMI, while telecommuting did not have a statistically significant effect on BMI.Conclusions: This study's findings confirm previously observed gendered differences in the re-lations between the built environment, transport behaviors, and BMI, while offering new insights regarding the impacts of the changes in commute patterns linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since some of the COVID-19 impacts on commute are expected to be lasting, findings from this research can be of use by health and transport practitioners as they work towards generating policies that improve population health.